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s that?' asked Torgaddon, pointing at the casket.
Loken dropped to his haunches, laying the casket next to the sword, unsurprised when he saw that the sword would fit snugly inside.
'I think it once contained this sword.'
'Looks pretty new,' said Vipus. 'And what's that on the side? Writing?'
Loken didn't answer, reaching out to prise Temba's dead fingers from the sword hilt. Though he knew it was absurd, he grimaced with each finger he pried loose, expecting the hand to leap to life and attack him.
Eventually, the sword was free, and Loken gingerly lifted the weapon.
'Careful,' said Torgaddon.
'Thanks, Tarik, and here was me about to throw it about.'
'Sorry.'
Loken slowly lowered the sword into the casket. The handle tingled and he had felt a curious sensation as he had said Tarik's name, a sense of the monstrous harm the weapon could inflict. He snapped the lid shut, letting out a pent-up breath.
'How in the name of Terra did someone like Temba get hold of a weapon like that?' asked Torgaddon. 'It didn't even look human-made.'
'It's not,' said Loken as the familiarity of the symbols on the side of the casket fell horribly into place. 'It's kinebrach.'
'Kinebrach?' asked Torgaddon. 'But weren't they-'
'Yes,' said Loken, carefully lifting the casket from the deck. 'This is the anathame that was stolen from the Hall of Devices on Xenobia.'
THE WORD WENT out across the Vengeful Spirit at the speed of thought, and weeping men and women lined their route. Hundreds filled each passageway as the Astartes bore the Warmaster on a bier of kite-shaped shields. Clad in his ceremonial armour of winter white with burnished gold trims and the glaring red eye, the Warmaster's hands were clasped across his golden sword, and a laurel wreath of silver sat upon his noble brow.
Abaddon, Aximand, Luc Sedirae, Serghar Targost, Falkus Kibre and Kalus Ekaddon carried him, and behind the Warmaster came Hektor Varvarus and Maloghurst. Each one wore shining armour and their company cloaks billowed behind them as they walked. Heralds and criers announced the route of the cortege, and there was no repeat of the bloody scene on the embarkation deck as the Astartes took this slow march with the beloved leader who had fought beside them since the earliest days of the Crusade. They wept as they marched, each one painfully aware that this might be the Warmaster's last journey.
In lieu of flowers, the people threw torn scraps of tear-stained paper, each with words of hope and love written on them. Shown that the Warmaster still lived, his people burned herbs said to have healing properties, hanging them from smoking censers all along the route and from somewhere a band played the Legion March.
Candles burned with a sweet smell and men and women, soldiers and civilians, tore at themselves in their grief. Army banners lined the route, each dipped out of respect for the Warmaster, and pleading chants followed the procession until at last they came to the embarkation deck. Its vast gateway was wreathed in parchment, every square centimetre of bulkhead covered with messages for the Warmaster and his sons.
Aximand was awed by the outpouring of sorrow and love for the Warmaster, the scale of people's grief at his wounding beyond anything in his experience. To him the Warmaster was a figure of magnificence, but first and foremost, he was a warrior - a leader of men and one of the Emperor's chosen.
To these mortals, he was so much more. To them, the Warmaster was a symbol of something noble and heroic beyond anything they could ever aspire to, a symbol of the new galaxy they were forging from the ashes of the Age of Strife.
Horus's very existence promised an end to the suffering and death that had plagued humanity for centuries.
Old Night was drawing to a close and, thanks to heroes like the Warmaster, the first rays of a new dawn were breaking on the horizon.
All that was under threat now, and Aximand knew he had made the right choice in allowing the others to take Horus to Davin. The Lodge of the Serpent would heal the Warmaster, and if that involved powers he might once have condemned, then so be it.
The die was cast and all he had left to cling to was his faith that the Warmaster would be restored to them. He smiled as he remembered something the Warmaster had said to him on the subject of faith. The Warmaster had typically delivered his words of wisdom at a wholly inappropriate time - right before they had leapt from the belly of a screaming Stormbird into the greenskin city on Ullanor.
'When you have come to the edge of all that you know and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen,' the Warmaster had told him.
'And what are they?' he had asked.
'That there will be something solid to stand on or you'll be taught to fly,' laughed Horus as he jumped.
The memory made the tears come all the harder as the huge iron gate of the embarkation deck rumbled closed behind them and the Astartes marched towards the Warmaster's waiting Stormbird.
TWELVE
Agitprop
Brothers in suspicion
Serpent and moon
SLIPPING ACROSS THE page like a snake, the nib of Ignace Karkasy's pen moved as though it had a mind of its own. For all the conscious thought he was putting into the words, it might as well have. The muse was well and truly upon him, his stream of consciousness flowing into a river of blood as he retold the diabolical events on the embarkation deck. The meter played in his head like a symphony, every stanza of every canto slipping into place as if there could be no other possible arrangement of verse.
Even in his heyday of Ocean Poems or Reflections and Odes he had not felt this inspired. In fact, now that he looked back on them, he hated them for their frippery, their unconscionable navel gazing and irrelevance to the galaxy at large. These words, these thoughts that now poured from him, this was what mattered, and he cursed that it had taken him this long to discover it.
The truth was what mattered. Captain Loken had told him as much, but he hadn't heard him, not really. The verses he'd written since Loken had begun his sponsorship of him were paltry things, unworthy of the man who had won the Ethiopic Laureate, but that was changing now.
After the bloodbath on the embarkation deck, he'd returned to his quarters, grabbed a bottle of Terran wine and made his way to the observation deck. Finding it thronged with wailing lunatics, he'd repaired to the Retreat, knowing that it would be empty.
The words had poured out of him in a flood of righteous indignation, his metaphors bold and his lyric unflinching from the awful brutality he'd witnessed. He'd already used up three pages of the Bondsman, his fingers blotted with ink and his poet's soul on fire.
'Everything I've done before this was prologue,' he whispered as he wrote.
Karkasy paused in his work as he pondered the dilemma: the truth was useless if no one could hear it. The facilities set aside for the remembrancers included a presswork where they could submit their work for large-scale circulation. It was common knowledge that much of what that passed through it was vetted and censored, and so few made use of it. Karkasy certainly couldn't, considering the content of his new poetry.
A slow smile spread across his jowly features and he reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper - one of Euphrati Keeler's Lectitio Divinitatus pamphlets - and spread it out flat on the table before him with the heel of his palm.
The ink was smeared and the paper reeked of ammonia, clearly the work of a cheap mechanical bulk-printer of some kind. If Euphrati could get the use of one, then so could he.
LOKEN PERMITTED TYBALT Marr to torch the body of Eugan Temba before they left the bridge. His fellow captain, streaked with gore and filth, played the burning breath of a flame unit over the monstrous corpse until nothing but ashen bone remained. It was small satisfaction for the death of a brother, not nearly enough, but it would have to do. Leaving behind the smouldering remains, they retraced their footsteps back through the Glory of Terra.
The light was fading on Davin's moon by the time they reached the outside, the planet above a pale yellow orb hanging low in the dusky sky. Loken carried the anathame in its gleaming wooden casket, and his warriors followed him from the wreck without any words spoken.
A great rumbling vibration gripped the moon as a trio of towering columns of light and smoke climbed towards the heavens from the Imperial deployment zone where this whole misadventure had started. Loken watched the incredible spectacle of the war machines of the Legio Mortis returning to their armoured berths in orbit, and silently thanked their crews for their aid in the fight against the dead things.
Soon all that was visible of the Titans' carriers was a diffuse glow on the horizon, and only the lap of water and the low growling of the waiting Thunderhawk's engines disturbed the silence. The desolate mudflats were empty for kilometres around, and as Loken made his way down the slope of rubble, he felt like the loneliest man in the galaxy.
Some kilometres away, he could see specks of blue light following the Titan carriers as Army transports ferried the last remaining soldiers back to their bulk transporters.
'We'll soon be done here, eh?' said Torgaddon.
'I suppose,' agreed Loken. 'The sooner the better.'
'How do you suppose that thing got here?'
Loken didn't have to ask what his brother meant, and shook his head, unwilling to share his suspicions with Torgaddon yet. As much as he loved him, Tarik had a big mouth, and Loken didn't want to put his quarry to flight.
'I don't know, Tarik,' said Loken as they reached the ground and made their way towards the Thunderhawk's lowered assault ramp. 'I don't think we'll ever know.'
'Come on, Garvi, it's me!' laughed Torgaddon. 'You're so |
the better.'
'How do you suppose that thing got here?'
Loken didn't have to ask what his brother meant, and shook his head, unwilling to share his suspicions with Torgaddon yet. As much as he loved him, Tarik had a big mouth, and Loken didn't want to put his quarry to flight.
'I don't know, Tarik,' said Loken as they reached the ground and made their way towards the Thunderhawk's lowered assault ramp. 'I don't think we'll ever know.'
'Come on, Garvi, it's me!' laughed Torgaddon. 'You're so straight up and down, and that makes you a really terrible liar. I know you've got some idea of what happened. So come on, spill it.'
'I can't, Tarik, I'm sorry,' said Loken. 'Not yet anyway. Trust me. I know what I'm doing.'
'Do you really?'
'I'm not sure,' admitted Loken. 'I think so. Throne, I wish the Warmaster were here to ask.'
'Well he's not,' stated Torgaddon, 'so you're stuck with me.'
Loken stepped onto the ramp, grateful to be off the marshy surface of the moon, and turned to face Torgaddon. 'You're right, I should tell you, and I will, soon. I just need to figure some things out first.'
'Look, I'm not stupid, Garvi,' said Torgaddon, leaning in close so that none of the others could hear. 'I know the only way this thing could have got here is if someone in the expedition brought it. It had to have been here before we arrived. That means there was only one person who was with us on Xenobia and could have got here before we did. You know who I'm talking about.'
'I know who you're talking about,' agreed Loken, pulling Torgaddon aside as the rest of the warriors embarked upon the Thunderhawk. 'What I can't figure out is why? Why go to all the trouble of stealing this thing and then bringing it here?'
'I'm going to break that son of a bitch in two if he had something to do with what's happened to the Warmaster,' snarled Torgaddon. 'The Legion will have his hide,'
'No,' hissed Loken, 'not yet. Not until we find out what this is all about and if anyone else is involved. I just can't believe that someone would dare try and move against the Warmaster.'
'Is that what you think is happening, a coup? You think that one of the other primarchs is making a play for the role of Warmaster?'
'I don't know, it all sounds too far fetched. It sounds like something from one of Sindermann's books.'
Neither man said anything. The idea that one of the eternal brotherhood of primarchs might be attempting to usurp Horus was incredible, outrageous and unthinkable, wasn't it?
'Hey,' called Vipus from inside the Thunderhawk. 'What are you two conspirators plotting?'
'Nothing,' said Loken guiltily. 'We were just talking.'
'Well finish up. We need to go, now!'
'Why, what is it?' asked Loken as he climbed aboard.
'The Warmaster,' said Vipus. 'They're taking him to Davin.'
The Thunderhawk was in the air moments later, lifting off in a spray of muddy water and a flare of blue-hot jet fire. The gunship circled the massive wreck, gaining altitude and speed as it turned towards the sky.
The pilot firewalled the engines and the gunship roared up into the darkness.
THE GREAT RED orb of the sun was dipping below the horizon and hot, dry winds rising from the plains below made it a bumpy ride as they re-entered Davin's atmosphere. The continental mass swelled through the armoured glass of the cockpit, dusty and brown and dry. Loken sat up front in the cockpit with the pilots and watched the avionics panel as the red blip that represented the location of the Warmaster's Stormbird drew ever closer.
Far below them, he could see the glittering lights of the Imperial deployment zone where they had first made planetfall on Davin, a wide circle of arc lights, makeshift landing platforms and defensive positions. The pilot brought them in at a steep angle, speed more important to Loken than any notion of safe flight, and they streaked past scores of other landing craft on their way to the surface.
'Why so many?' wondered Loken as their flight leveled out and they shot past the wide circle of light, seeing soldiers and servitors toiling to expedite the approach of so many landing craft.
'No idea,' said the pilot, 'but there's hundreds of them coming down from the fleet. Looks like a lot of people want to see Davin.'
Loken didn't reply, but the sight of so many landing craft en route to Davin was yet another piece of the puzzle that he didn't understand. The vox networks were jammed with insane chatter, weeping voices and groups claiming that the end was coming, while yet others gave thanks to the divine Emperor that his chosen champion would soon rise from his deathbed.
None of it made any sense. He'd tried to make contact with the Mournival, but no one was answering, and a terrible foreboding filled him when he couldn't even reach Maloghurst on the Vengeful Spirit.
Their flight soon carried them beyond the Imperial position, and Loken saw a ribbon of light stretching north from the landing zone. A host of pinpricks of light pierced the darkness, and Loken ordered the pilot to fly lower and reduce speed.
A long column of vehicles: tanks, supply trucks, transporter flatbeds and even some civilian traffic, drove along the dusty hardpan, each one swamped with people, and all heading to the mountains as fast as their engines could carry them. The Thunderhawk powered on through the fading light of day, soon losing sight of the column of vehicles that was heading in the same direction.
'How long until we reach the Warmaster's position?' he asked.
'At current speed, maybe ten minutes or so,' answered the pilot.
Loken tried to collect his thoughts, but they had long since derailed in the midst of all this madness. Ever since leaving the interex, his mind had been a whirlpool, sucking in every random thought and spitting it out with barbs of suspicion. Could it be that he was still suffering the after-effects of what had happened to Jubal? Might the power unlocked beneath the Whisperheads be tainting him so that he jumped at shadows where none existed?
He might have been able to believe that, but for the presence of the anathame and his certainty that First Chaplain Erebus had lied to him on the voyage to Davin.
Karkasy had said that Erebus wanted Horus to come to Davin's moon, and his undoubted complicity in the theft of the anathame could lead to only one conclusion. Erebus had wanted Horus to be killed here.
That didn't make any sense either. Why go to such convoluted lengths just to kill the Warmaster, surely there had to be more to it than that...
Facts were slowly accumulating, but none of them fit, and still he had no idea why any of this was happening, only that it was, and that it was by the artifice of human design. Whatever was going on, he would uncover the conspiracy and make those involved pay with their lives.
'We're coming up on the Warmaster's Stormbird,' called the pilot.
Loken shook himself from his venomous reverie. He hadn't been aware of time passing, but immediately turned his attention to what lay beyond the armoured glass of the cockpit.
Tall mountain peaks surrounded them, jagged cliffs of red stone, veined with gleaming strata of gold and quartz. They followed the course of an ancient causeway along the valley, its flagstones split and cracked with the passing of the centuries. Statues of long-dead kings lined the processional way, and toppled columns littered this forgotten highway like fallen guardians. Shadows plumbed the depths of the valley along which they flew and in a gap ahead, he could see a reflected glow in the brazen sky.
The pilot dropped their speed and the gunship flew through the gap into a colossal crater gouged from the landscape like an enormous, flat-bottomed basin. The sheer sides of the crater soared above them, its diameter thousands of metres across.
A huge stone building stood at its centre, carved from the same rock as the mountains and bathed in the light of a thousand flaming torches. The Thunderhawk circled the structure and Loken saw that it was a giant octagonal building, each corner shaped like the bastion of a fortress. Eight towers surrounded a wide dome at its centre and flames burned from their tops.
Loken could see the Warmaster's Stormbird below them, a multitude of torchbearers surrounding it, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. A clear path stretched from the Stormbird towards the cyclopean archway that led into the building, and Loken saw the unmistakable form of the Warmaster being borne by the Sons of Horus towards it.
'Take us down. Now!' shouted Loken. He rose, made his way back to the crew compartment and snatched his bolter from the rack.
'What's up?' asked Vipus. 'Trouble?'
'Could be,' said Loken, turning to address all the warriors aboard the gunship. 'Once we disembark, take your lead from me.'
His warriors had efficiently prepped for a combat disembarkation, and Loken felt the motion of the Thunderhawk change as it slowed and came in to land. The internal light changed from red to green and the craft slammed hard into the ground. The assault ramp dropped and Loken led the way out, marching confidently towards the building.
Night had fallen, but the air was hot, and the sour fragrances of bitter blossoms filled the air with a beguiling, aromatic scent. He led his men onwards at a quick march. Many of the torchbearers turned quizzically towards them, and Loken now saw that these were the indigenous inhabitants of Davin.
The Davinites were more wiry than most mortal men, tall and hirsute with thin limbs, and elaborate topknots worn in a style similar to Abaddon's. They wore long capes of shimmering, patterned scales, banded armour - of the same lacquered scales - and most were armed with cross-belts of daggers and primitive looking black powder pistols. They parted before the advance of the Astartes, heads bowed in supplication, and it forcibly struck Loken just how close to deviancy these creatures appeared to be.
He hadn't paid much attent |
an most mortal men, tall and hirsute with thin limbs, and elaborate topknots worn in a style similar to Abaddon's. They wore long capes of shimmering, patterned scales, banded armour - of the same lacquered scales - and most were armed with cross-belts of daggers and primitive looking black powder pistols. They parted before the advance of the Astartes, heads bowed in supplication, and it forcibly struck Loken just how close to deviancy these creatures appeared to be.
He hadn't paid much attention to the Davinites the first time he'd landed. He was just a squad captain more concerned with obeying orders and completing the tasks assigned to him than paying attention to the locals. Even this time, his attention had been elsewhere, and the almost bestial appearance of the Davinites had more or less slipped past his notice.
Surrounded by hundreds of the planet's inhabitants, their divergence from the human genome was unmistakable, and Loken wondered how they had avoided extermination six decades ago, especially since it had been the Word Bearers who had made first contact with Davin - a Legion not noted for its tolerance of anything beyond the norm.
Loken was reminded of Abaddon's furious argument with the Warmaster over the question of the interex, and of how the first captain had demanded that they make war upon them for their tolerance of xenos breeds. If anything, Davin was far more of a textbook case for war, but somehow that hadn't happened.
The Davinites were clearly of human gene-stock, but this offshoot of humanity had diverged into a species almost all of its own. The wide spacing of their features, the dark eyes without pupils and the excessive, almost simian volume of thick hair on their faces and arms put Loken more in the mind of the stable-bred mutants some regiments of the Imperial Army employed. They were crude creatures with the intelligence to swing a sword or fire a clumsy rifle, but not much else.
Loken did not approve of the practice, and though the inhabitants of Davin were clearly possessed of a greater level of intelligence than such beasts, their appearance did not reassure him as to what was going on.
He put the Davinites from his mind as he approached a massive set of steps carved into the rock and lined with statues of coiling serpents and flaming braziers. Three narrow channels filled with rushing water divided the stairs, one to either side and one down the centre.
The Warmaster and his bearers were out of sight on the next level, and Loken led his warriors up the processional stairs, taking them three at a time as he heard a monstrous grinding of stone up ahead. The image of vast, monolithic doors appeared unbidden in his mind and he said, 'We have to hurry.'
Loken neared the top of the steps, the flickering coal braziers casting a ruddy glow over the statues that glinted from the serpents' scales and quartz-chip eyes. The last rays of the dying sun caught the twisting snakes carved around the pillars, making them seem alive, as if slowly descending to the steps. The effect was unsettling, and Loken opened his suit link again, saying, 'Abaddon, Aximand? Can either of you hear me? Respond.'
His earpiece hissed with static, but his hails received no answers and he picked up the pace.
He reached the top of the steps at last, and emerged onto a moonlit esplanade of yet more serpentine statues atop pillars that lined a narrowing roadway leading towards a giant, arched gateway in the face of the massive edifice. Wide gates of carved and beaten bronze with a glistening, spiraled surface rambled as they swung closed, and Loken felt his skin crawl at the sight of that dread portal, its yawning darkness rich with the promise of ancient, primal power.
He could see a group of Astartes warriors standing before it, watching as the monstrous gate shut. Loken could see no sign of the Warmaster.
'Pick up the pace, battle march,' he ordered, and began the loping, ground-eating stride that the Astartes adopted when there was no vehicle support. Marching at this speed was sustainable over huge distances and still allowed a warrior to fight at the end of it. Loken prayed that he wouldn't be required to fight at the end of this march.
As he drew closer to the gates he saw that, far from being etched with meaningless spirals, each was carved with all manner of images and scenes. Looping serpents twisted from one leaf to another, others circled and swallowed their tails, and yet more were depicted intertwined as though mating.
Only when the gate slammed shut with a thunderous boom of metal did he see the full image. Unlike the commander, Loken was no student of art; nevertheless, he was awed by the full impact of the images worked onto the sealed gateway. Central to its imagery was a great tree with spreading branches, hanging with fruit of all description. Its three roots stretched out beyond the base of the gates and into a wide circular pool that fed the streams running the length of the esplanade, before cascading down the grand stairs.
Twin snakes coiled around the tree, their heads entwined in the branches above, and Loken was struck by its similarity to the symbol borne upon the shoulder guards of the Legion apothecaries.
Seven warriors stood at the edge of the pool of water, before the massive gate. They were armoured in the green of the Sons of Horus, and Loken knew them all: Abaddon, Aximand, Targost, Sedirae, Ekaddon, Kibre and Maloghurst.
None wore their helmets and as they turned, he could see that each one had the same air of helpless desperation. He had walked into hell with these warriors time and time again, and seeing his brothers with such expressions on their faces, drained him of his anger, leaving him hollow and heartbroken.
He slowed his march as he came face to face with Aximand.
'What have you done?' he asked. 'Oh my brothers, what have you done?'
'What needed to be done,' said Abaddon, when Aximand didn't answer.
Loken ignored the first captain and said, 'Little Horus? Tell me what you've done.'
'It is as Ezekyle said. We did what had to be done,' said Aximand. 'The Warmaster was dying and Vaddon couldn't save him. So we brought him to the Delphos.'
'The Delphos?' asked Loken.
'It is the name of this place,' said Aximand. 'The Temple of the Serpent Lodge.'
'Temple?' asked Torgaddon. 'Horus, you brought the Warmaster to a fane? Are you mad? The commander would never have agreed to this.'
'Maybe not,' replied Serghar Targost, stepping forward to stand beside Abaddon, 'but by the end he couldn't even speak. He spoke to that damn remembrancer woman for hours on end before he lost consciousness. We had to place him in a stasis field to keep him alive long enough to bring him here.'
'Is Tarik right?' asked Loken. 'Is this a fane?'
'Fane, temple, Delphos, house of healing, call it what you will,' shrugged Targost. 'With the Warmaster on the threshold of death, neither religion nor its denial seems very significant any more. It is the only hope we have left and what do we have to lose? If we do nothing, the Warmaster dies. At least this way he has a chance of life.'
'And at what price will we buy his life?' demanded Loken. 'By bringing him to a house of false gods? The Emperor tells us that civilization will only achieve perfection when the last stone of the last church falls upon the last priest, and this is where you bring the Warmaster. This goes against everything we have fought for these last two centuries. Don't you see that?'
'If the Emperor was here, he would do the same,' said Targost, and Loken felt his choler rise to the surface at such hubris.
He stepped threateningly close to Targost. 'You think you know the Emperor's will, Serghar? Does being lodge master of a secret society give you the power to know such a thing?'
'Of course not,' sneered Targost, 'but I know he would want his son to live.'
'By entrusting his life to these... savages?'
'It is from these savages that our own quiet order comes,' pointed out Targost.
'Yet another reason for me to distrust it then,' snapped Loken, turning from the lodge master and addressing Vipus and Torgaddon. 'Come on. We're getting the Warmaster out of there.'
'You can't,' said Maloghurst, limping forward to join Abaddon, and Loken had the distinct impression that his brothers were forming a barrier between him and the gateway.
'What do you mean?'
'It is said that once the Delphos Gate is shut, there is no way to open it save from the inside. A man in need of healing is carried inside and left to whatever the eternal spirits of deceased things decree for him. If it is his destiny to live, he may open the gate himself, if not, it opens in nine days and his remains are burned before being cast into the pool.'
'So you've just left the Warmaster inside? For all the good that will do him, you might just as well have left him on the Vengeful Spirit; and "eternal spirits of deceased things" - what does that even mean? This is insane. Can't you see that?'
'Standing by and watching him die would have been insane,' said Maloghurst. 'You judge us for acting out of love. Can't you see that?'
'No, Mal, I can't,' replied Loken sadly. 'How did you even think to bring him here anyway? Was it some secret knowledge your damned lodge is privy to?'
None of his brothers spoke, and as Loken searched their faces for answers, the truth of the matter was suddenly, horribly, clear to him.
'Erebus told you of this place, didn't he?'
'Yes,' admitted Targost. 'He knows of these lodges of old and has seen the power of their healing houses. If the Warmaster lives you will be thankful he spoke of it.'
'Where is he?' demanded Loken. 'He will answer to me for this.'
'He is not here, Garvi,' said Aximand. 'This was for the Sons of Horus to do.'
'Then where is he now, still on the Vengeful Spirit?'
Aximand shrugged. 'I suppose so. Why is it important to you?'
'I believe you have all been deceived, my brothers,' said Loken. 'O |
'Yes,' admitted Targost. 'He knows of these lodges of old and has seen the power of their healing houses. If the Warmaster lives you will be thankful he spoke of it.'
'Where is he?' demanded Loken. 'He will answer to me for this.'
'He is not here, Garvi,' said Aximand. 'This was for the Sons of Horus to do.'
'Then where is he now, still on the Vengeful Spirit?'
Aximand shrugged. 'I suppose so. Why is it important to you?'
'I believe you have all been deceived, my brothers,' said Loken. 'Only the Emperor has the power to heal the Warmaster now. All else is falsehood and the domain of unclean corpse-whisperers.'
'The Emperor is not here,' said Targost bluntly. 'We take what aid we can.'
'What of you, Tarik?' put in Abaddon. 'Will you turn from your Mournival brothers, as Garviel does? Stand with us.'
'Garvi may be a starch-arse, Ezekyle, but he's right and I can't stand with you on this one. I'm sorry,' said Torgaddon as he and Loken turned away from the gate.
'You forget your Mournival oath!' cried Abaddon as they marched away. 'You swore to be true to the Mournival to the end of your lives. You will be oath-breakers!'
The words of the first captain hit Loken with the force of a bolter round and he stopped in his tracks. Oath-breaker... The very idea was hideous.
Aximand came after him, grabbing his arm and pointing towards the pool of water. The black water rippled with motion and Loken could see the yellow crescent of Davin's moon wavering in its surface.
'See?' said Aximand. 'The moon shines upon the water, Loken. The crescent mark of the new moon... It was branded upon your helmet when we swore our Mournival oath. It is a good omen, my brother.'
'Omen?' spat Loken, shrugging off his touch. 'Since when have we put our faith in omens, Horus? The Mournival oath was pantomime, but this is ritual. This is sorcery. I told you then that I would not bow to any fane or acknowledge any spirit. I told you that I owned only the empirical clarity of Imperial Truth and I stand by those words.'
'Please, Garvi,' begged Aximand. 'We are doing the right thing.'
Loken shook his head. 'I believe we will all rue the day you brought the Warmaster here.'
PART THREE
THE HOUSE OF FALSE GODS
THIRTEEN
Who are you?
Ritual
Old friend
HORUS OPENED HIS eyes, smiling as he saw blue sky above him. Pink and orange tinged clouds drifted slowly across his vision, peaceful and relaxing. He watched them for a few moments and then sat up, feeling wet dew beneath his palms as he pushed himself upright. He saw that he was naked, and as he surveyed his surroundings, he lifted his hand to his face, smelling the sweet scent of the grass and the crystal freshness of the air.
A vista of unsurpassed beauty lay before him, towering snow-capped mountains draped in a shawl of pine and fir, magnificent swathes of emerald green forests as far as the eye could see and a wide river of foaming, icy water. Hundreds of shaggy coated herbivores grazed on the plain and wide pinioned birds circled noisily overhead. Horus sat on the low slopes of the foothills at the base of the mountains, the sun warming his face and the grass wondrously soft beneath him.
'So that's it then,' he said calmly to himself. 'I'm dead.'
No one answered him, but then he hadn't expected them to. Was this what happened when a person died? He dimly remembered someone teaching him of the ancient unbelief of 'heaven' and 'hell', meaningless words that promised rewards for obedience and punishment for wickedness.
He took a deep breath, scenting the aroma of good earth: the fragrances of a world unchecked and untamed and of the living things that covered the landscape. He could taste the air and was amazed at its purity. Its crispness filled his lungs like sweet wine, but how had he come here and... where was here?
He had been... where? He couldn't remember. He knew his name was Horus, but beyond that, he knew only fragments and dim recollections that even now grew faint and insubstantial the more he tried to hold onto them.
Deciding that he should try to find out more about his surroundings, he rose to his feet, wincing as his shoulder pulled tight, and he saw a spot of blood soak through the white woollen robes he found himself wearing. Hadn't he been naked a second ago?
Horus put it from his mind and laughed. 'There might be no hell, but this feels like heaven right enough.'
His throat was dry and he set off towards the river, feeling the softness of the grass through newly sandaled feet. He was further away than he thought, the journey taking him longer than expected, but he didn't mind. The beauty of the landscape was worth savoring, and though something insistent nagged at the back of his mind, he ignored it and carried on.
The mountains seemed to reach the very stars, their peaks lost in the clouds and belching noxious fumes into the air as he gazed up at them. Horus blinked; the afterimage of dark, smoke wreathed peaks of iron and cement burned onto his retinas like a spliced frame of harsh interference dropped into a mood window. He dismissed it as the newness of his surroundings, and headed across the swaying plains of tall grass, feeling the bones and waste of uncounted centuries of industry crunching beneath his feet.
Horus felt ash in his throat, now needing a drink more than ever, the chemical stink growing worse with each step. He tasted benzene, chlorine, hydrochloric acid and vast amounts of carbon monoxide - lethal toxins to any but him it seemed - and briefly wondered how he knew these things. The river was just ahead and he splashed through the shallows, enjoying the biting cold as he reached down and scooped a handful of water into his cupped palms.
The icy water burned his skin, molten slag dripping in caustic ropes between his fingers, and he let it splash back into the river, wiping his hands on his robe, which was now soot stained and torn. He looked up and saw that the glittering quartz mountains had become vast towers of brass and iron, wounding the sky with gateways like vast maws that could swallow and vomit forth entire armies. Streams of toxic filth poured from the towers and poisoned the river, the landscape around it withering and dying in an instant.
Confused, Horus stumbled from the river, fighting to hold onto the verdant wilderness that had surrounded him and to hold back the vision of this bleak land of dark ruin and despair. He turned from the dark mountain: the cliff of deepest red and blackened iron, its top hidden in the high clouds above and its base girded with boulders and skulls.
He fell to his knees, expecting the softness of the grass, but landing heavily on a fractured hardpan of ash and iron, swirling vortices of dust rising up in great storms.
'What's happening here?' shouted Horus, rolling onto his back and screaming into a polluted sky striated with ugly bands of ochre and purple. He picked himself up and ran - ran as though his life depended on it. He ran across a landscape that flickered from one of aching beauty to that of a nightmare in the space of a heartbeat, his senses deceiving him from one second to another.
Horus ran into the forest. The black trunks of the trees snapped before his furious charge, images of lashing branches, high towers of steel and glass, great ruins of mighty cathedrals and rotted palaces left to crumble under the weight of the ages dancing before his eyes.
Bestial howls echoed across the landscape, and Horus paused in his mad scramble as the sound penetrated the fog in his head, the insistent nagging sensation in the back of his mind recognizing it as significant.
The mournful howls echoed across the land, a chorus of voices reaching out to him, and Horus recognized them as wolf howls. He smiled at the sound, dropping to his knees and clutching his shoulder as fiery pain lanced through his arm and into his chest. With the pain came clarity and he held onto it, forcing the memories to come through force of will.
Howling wolf voices came again, and he cried out to the heavens.
'What's happening to me?'
The trees around him exploded with motion and a hundred-strong pack of wolves sprang from the undergrowth, surrounding him, with their teeth bared and eyes wide. Foam gathered around exposed fangs and each wolf bore a strange brand upon its fur, that of a black, double-headed eagle. Horus clutched his shoulder, his arm numb and dead as though it was no longer part of him.
'Who are you?' asked the closest wolf. Horus blinked rapidly as its image fizzled like static, and he saw curves of armour and a single, staring cyclopean eye.
'I am Horus,' he said.
'Who are you?' repeated the wolf.
'I am Horus!' he yelled. 'What more do you want from me?'
'I do not have much time, my brother,' said the wolf as the pack began circling him. 'You must remember before he comes for you. Who are you?'
'I am Horus and if I am dead then leave me be!' he screamed, surging to his feet and running onwards into the depths of the forest.
The wolves followed him, loping alongside him and matching his steady pace as he lurched randomly through the twilight. Again and again, the wolves howled the same question until Horus lost all sense of direction and time.
Horus ran blindly onwards until he finally emerged from the tree line above a wide, high-cliffed crater gouged in the landscape and filled with dark, still water.
The sky above was black and starless, a moon of purest white shining like a diamond in the firmament. He blinked and raised a hand to ward his eyes against its brightness, looking out over the black waters of the crater, certain that some unspeakable horror lurked in its icy depths.
Horus glanced behind him to see that the wolves had followed him from the trees, and he ran on as their howling followed him to the edge of the crater. Far below, the water lay still and flat like a black mirror, and the image of the moon filled his vision.
The wolves howled again, and Horus felt th |
the firmament. He blinked and raised a hand to ward his eyes against its brightness, looking out over the black waters of the crater, certain that some unspeakable horror lurked in its icy depths.
Horus glanced behind him to see that the wolves had followed him from the trees, and he ran on as their howling followed him to the edge of the crater. Far below, the water lay still and flat like a black mirror, and the image of the moon filled his vision.
The wolves howled again, and Horus felt the yawning depths of the water calling out to him with an inevitable attraction. He saw the moon and heard the company of wolves give voice to one last howled question before he hurled himself into the void.
He fell through the air, his vision tumbling and his memory spinning.
The moon, the wolves, Lupercal.
Luna... Wolves...
Everything snapped into place and he cried out, 'I am Horus of the Luna Wolves, Warmaster and regent of the Emperor and I am alive!'
Horus struck the water and it exploded like shards of black glass.
FLICKERING LIGHT FILLED the chamber with a cold glow, the cracked stone walls limned with crawling webs of frost, and the breath of the cultists feathering in the air. Akshub had painted a circle with eight sharp points around its circumference, on the flagstones in quicklime. The mutilated corpse of one of the Davinite priestess's acolytes lay spread-eagled at its centre.
Erebus watched carefully as the priestess's lodge thralls spread around the circle, ensuring that every stage of the ritual was enacted with meticulous care. To fail now, after he had invested so much effort in bringing the Warmaster to this point, would be disastrous, although Erebus knew that his part in the Warmaster's downfall was but one of a million events set in motion thousands of years ago.
This fulcrum point in time was the culmination of billions of seemingly unrelated chains of circumstance that had led to this backwater world that no one had ever heard of.
Erebus knew that that was all about to change. Davin would soon become a place of legend.
The secret chamber in the heart of the Delphos was hidden from prying eyes by potent magic and sophisticated technology received from disaffected Mechanicum adepts, who welcomed the knowledge the Word Bearers could give them - knowledge that had been forbidden to them by the Emperor.
Akshub knelt and cut the heart from the dead acolyte, the lodge priestess expertly removing the still warm organ from its former owner's chest. She took a bite before handing it to Tsepha, her surviving acolyte.
They passed the heart around the circle, each of the cultists taking a bite of the rich red meat. Erebus took the ghastly remains of the heart as it was passed to him. He wolfed down the last of it, feeling the blood run down his chin and tasting the final memories of the betrayed acolyte as the treacherous blade had ended her life. That betrayal had been offered unto the Architect of Fate, this bloody feast to the Blood God, and the unlovely coupling of the doomed acolyte with a diseased swine had called upon the power of the Dark Prince and the Lord of Decay.
Blood pooled beneath the corpse, trickling into channels cut in the floor before draining into a sinkhole at the centre of the circle. Erebus knew that there was always blood, it was rich with life and surged with the power of the gods. What better way was there of tapping into that power than with the vital substance that carried their blessing?
'Is it done?' asked Erebus.
Akshub nodded, lifting the long knife that had cut the heart from the corpse. 'It is. The power of the Ones Who Dwell Beyond is with us, though we must be swift.'
'Why must we hurry, Akshub?' he asked, placing his hand upon his sword. 'This must be done right or all our lives are forfeit.'
'I know this,' said the priestess. 'There is another presence near, a one-eyed ghost who walks between worlds and seeks to return the son to his father.'
'Magnus, you old snake,' chuckled Erebus, looking up towards the chamber's roof. 'You won't stop us. You're too far away and Horus is too far gone. I have seen to that.'
'Who do you speak with?' asked Akshub.
'The one-eyed ghost. You said there was another presence near.'
'Near, yes,' said Akshub, 'but not here.'
Tired of the old priestess's cryptic answers, Erebus snapped, 'Then where is he?'
Akshub reached up and tapped her head with the flat of her blade. 'He speaks to the son, though he cannot yet reach him fully. I can feel the ghost crawling around the temple, trying to break the magic keeping his full power out.'
'What?' cried Erebus.
'He will not succeed,' said Akshub, walking towards him with the knife outstretched. 'We have spirit-walked in the realm beyond for thousands of years and his knowledge is a paltry thing next to ours.'
'For your sake, it had better be, Akshub.'
She smiled and held the knife out. 'Your threats mean nothing here, warrior. I could boil the blood in your veins with a word, or rip your body inside out with a thought. You need me to send your soul into the world beyond, but how will you return if I am dead? Your soul will remain adrift in the void forever, and you are not so full of anger that you do not fear such a fate.'
Erebus did not like the sudden authority in her voice, but he knew she was right and decided he would kill her once her purpose was served. He swallowed his anger and said, 'Then let us begin.'
'Very well,' nodded the priestess, as Tsepha came forward and anointed Erebus's face with crystalline antimony. 'Is this for the veil?'
'Yes,' said Akshub. 'It will confound his senses and he will not see your likeness. He will see a face familiar and beloved to him.'
Erebus smiled at the delicious irony of the thought, and closed his eyes as Tsepha daubed his eyelids and cheeks with the stinging, silver-white powder.
'The spell that will allow your passage to the void requires one last thing,' said Akshub.
'What last thing?' asked Erebus, suddenly suspicious. 'Your death,' said Akshub, slashing her knife across his throat.
HORUS OPENED HIS eyes, smiling as he saw blue sky above him. Pink and orange tinged clouds drifted slowly across his vision, peaceful and relaxing. He watched them for a few moments and then sat up, feeling wet dew beneath his palms as he pushed himself upright. He saw that he was fully armoured in his frost white plate, and as he surveyed his surroundings, he lifted his hand to his face, smelling the sweet scent on the grass and the crystal freshness of the air.
A vista of unsurpassed beauty lay before him, towering snow-capped mountains draped in a shawl of pine and fir, magnificent swathes of emerald green forests as far as the eye could see and a wide river of foaming, icy water. Hundreds of shaggy coated herbivores grazed on the plain and wide pinioned birds circled noisily overhead. Horus sat on the low slopes of the foothills at the base of the mountains, the sun warming his face and the grass wondrously soft beneath him.
'To hell with this,' he said as he got to his feet. 'I know I'm not dead, so what's going on?'
Once again, no one answered him, though this time he had expected an answer. The world still smelled sweet and fragrant, but with the memory of his identity came the knowledge of its falsehood. None of this was real, not the mountains or the river or the forests that covered the landscape, though there was something oddly familiar to it.
He remembered the dark, iron backdrop that lay behind this illusion and found that if he willed it, he could see the suggestion of that nightmarish vision behind the beauty of the world laid out before him.
Horus remembered thinking - a lifetime ago, it seemed - that perhaps this place might have been some netherworld between heaven and hell, but now laughed at the idea. He had long ago accepted the principle that the universe was simply matter, and that which was not matter was nothing. The universe was everything, and therefore nothing could exist beyond it.
Horus had the wit to see why some ancient theologian had claimed that the warp was, in fact, hell. He understood the reasoning, but he knew that the Empyrean was no metaphysical dimension; it was simply an echo of the material world, where random vortices of energy and strange breeds of malign xenos creatures made their homes.
As pleasing an axiom as that was, it still didn't answer the question of where he was.
How had he come to this place? His last memory was of speaking to Petronella Vivar in the apothecarion, telling her of his life, his hopes, his disappointments and his fears for the galaxy - conscious that he had told her those incendiary things as his valediction.
He couldn't change that, but he would damn well get to the bottom of what was happening to him now. Was it a fever dream brought on by whatever had wounded him? Had Temba's sword been poisoned? He dismissed that thought immediately; no poison could lay him low. Surveying his surroundings, he could see no sign of the wolves that had chased him through the dark forests, but suddenly remembered a familiar form that had ghosted behind the face of the pack leader. For the briefest instant, it had looked like Magnus, but surely he was back on Prospero licking his wounds after the Council of Nikaea?
Something had happened to Horus on Davin's moon, but he had no idea what. His shoulder ached and he rotated it within his armour to loosen the muscle, but the motion served only to further aggravate it. Horus set off in the direction of the river once more, still thirsty despite knowing that he walked in an illusory realm.
Cresting the rise that then began to slope gently down towards the river, Horus pulled up sharply as he saw something startling: an armoured Astartes warrior floating face down in the water. Wedged in the shallows of the riverbank, the body rose and fell with the swell of the water, and Horus swiftly made his way towards it.
He splashed into t |
only to further aggravate it. Horus set off in the direction of the river once more, still thirsty despite knowing that he walked in an illusory realm.
Cresting the rise that then began to slope gently down towards the river, Horus pulled up sharply as he saw something startling: an armoured Astartes warrior floating face down in the water. Wedged in the shallows of the riverbank, the body rose and fell with the swell of the water, and Horus swiftly made his way towards it.
He splashed into the river and gripped the edges of the figure's shoulder guards, turning the body over with a heavy splash.
Horus gasped, seeing that the man was alive, and that it was someone he knew.
A beautiful man was how Loken had described him, a beautiful man who had been adored by all who knew him. The noblest hero of the Great Crusade had been another of his epithets.
Hastur Sejanus.
LOKEN MARCHED AWAY from the temple, angry at what his brothers had done and furious with himself: he should have known that Erebus would have had plans beyond the simple murder of the Warmaster.
His veins surged with the need to do violence, but Erebus was not here, and no one could tell Loken where he was. Torgaddon and Vipus marched alongside him, and even through his anger, Loken could sense his friends' astonishment at what had happened before the great gate of the Delphos.
'Throne, what's happening here?' asked Vipus as they reached the top of the processional steps. 'Garvi, what's happening? Are the first captain and Little Horus our enemies now?'
Loken shook his head. 'No, Nero, they are our brothers, they are simply being used. As I think we all are.'
'By Erebus?' asked Torgaddon.
'Erebus?' said Vipus. 'What has he got to do with this?'
'Garviel thinks that Erebus is behind what's happening to the Warmaster,' said Torgaddon.
Loken shot him an exasperated stare.
'You're joking?'
'Not this time, Nero,' said Torgaddon.
'Tarik,' snapped Loken. 'Keep your voice down or everyone will hear.'
'So what if they do, Garvi?' hissed Torgaddon. 'If Erebus is behind this, then everyone should know about it: we should expose him.'
'And we will,' promised Loken, watching as the pinpricks of vehicle headlights appeared at the mouth of the valley they had only recently flown up.
'So what do we do?' asked Vipus.
That was the question, realized Loken. They needed more information before they could act, and they needed it now. He fought for calm so that he could think more clearly.
Loken wanted answers, but he had to know what questions to ask first, and there was one man who had always been able to cut through his confusion and steer him in the right direction.
Loken set off down the steps, heading back towards the Thunderhawk. Torgaddon, Vipus and the warriors of Locasta followed him. As he reached the bottom of the steps, he turned to them and said, 'I need you two to stay here. Keep an eye on the temple and make sure that nothing bad happens.'
'Define "bad",' said Vipus.
'I'm not sure,' said Loken. 'Just... bad, you know? And contact me if you get so much as a glimpse of Erebus,'
'Where are you going?' asked Torgaddon.
'I'm going back to the Vengeful Spirit.'
'What for?'
'To get some answers,' said Loken.
'HASTUR!' CRIED HORUS, reaching down to lift his fallen friend from the water. Sejanus was limp in his arms, though Horus could tell he lived by the pulse in his throat and the colour in his cheeks. Horus dragged Sejanus from the water, wondering if his presence might be another of the strange realm's illusions or if his old friend might in fact be a threat to him.
Sejanus's chest hiked convulsively as he brought up a lungful of water, and Horus rolled him onto his side, knowing that the genhanced physique of an Astartes warrior made it almost impossible for him to drown.
'Hastur, is it really you?' asked Horus, knowing that in this place, such a question was probably meaningless, but overcome with joy to see his beloved Sejanus again. He remembered the pain he had felt when his most favoured son had been hacked down upon the onyx floor of the false Emperor's palace on Sixty-Three Nineteen, and the Cthonic bellicosity that had demanded blood vengeance.
Sejanus heaved a last flood of water and propped himself up on his elbow, sucking great lungfuls of the clean air. His hand clutched at his throat as though searching for something, and he looked relieved to find that it wasn't there.
'My son,' said Horus as Sejanus turned towards him. He was exactly as Horus remembered him, perfect in every detail: the noble face, wide set eyes and firm, straight nose that could be a mirror for the Warmaster himself.
Any thoughts that Sejanus might be a threat to him were swept away as he saw the silver shine of his eyes and knew that this surely was Hastur Sejanus. How such a thing was possible was beyond him, but he did not question this miracle for fear that it might be snatched away from him.
'Commander,' said Sejanus, rising to embrace Horus.
'Damn me, boy, it's good to see you,' said Horus. 'Part of me died when I lost you.'
'I know, sir,' replied Sejanus as they released each other from the crushing embrace. 'I felt your sorrow.'
'You're a sight for sore eyes, my boy,' said Horus, taking a step back to admire his most perfect warrior. 'It gladdens my heart to see you, but how can this be? I watched you die.'
'Yes,' agreed Sejanus. 'You did, but, in truth, my death was a blessing.'
'A blessing? How?'
'It opened my eyes to the truth of the universe and freed me from the shackles of living knowledge. Death is no longer an undiscovered country, my lord, it is one from which this traveler has returned.'
'How is such a thing possible?'
'They sent me back to you,' said Sejanus. 'My spirit was lost in the void, alone and dying, but I have come back to help you.'
Conflicting emotions surged through Horus at the sight of Sejanus. To hear him speak of spirits and voids struck a note of warning, but to see him alive once more, even if it wasn't real, was something to be cherished.
'You say you're here to help me? Then help me to understand this place. Where are we?'
'We don't have much time,' said Sejanus, climbing the slope to the rise that overlooked the plains and forests, and taking a long look around. 'He'll be here soon.'
'That's not the first time I've heard that recently,' said Horus.
'From where else have you heard it?' demanded Sejanus, turning back to face him with a serious expression. Horus was surprised at the vehemence of the question.
'A wolf said it to me,' said Horus. 'I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I swear it really did speak to me.'
'I believe you, sir,' said Sejanus. 'That's why we need to move on.'
Horus sensed evasion, a trait he had never known in Sejanus before now and said, 'You're avoiding my question, Hastur, now tell me where we are.'
'We don't have time, my lord,' urged Sejanus.
'Sejanus,' said Horus, his voice that of the Warmaster. 'Tell me what I want to know.'
'Very well,' said Sejanus, 'but quickly, for your body lies on the brink of death within the walls of the Delphos on Davin.'
'The Delphos? I've never heard of it, and this doesn't look like Davin.'
'The Delphos is a place sacred to the Lodge of the Serpent,' said Sejanus. 'A place of healing. In the ancient tongues of Earth its name means "the womb of the world", where a man may be healed and renewed. Your body lies in the Axis Mundi chamber, but your spirit is no longer tied to your flesh,'
'So we're not really here?' asked Horus. 'This world isn't real?'
'No.'
'Then this is the warp,' said Horus, finally accepting what he had begun to suspect.
'Yes. None of this is real,' said Sejanus, waving his hand around the landscape. 'All this is but fragments of your will and memory that have given shape to the formless energy of the warp.'
Horus suddenly knew where he had seen this land before, remembering the wondrous geophysical relief map of Terra they had found ten kilometres beneath a dead world almost a decade ago. It hadn't been the Terra of their time, but one of an age long past, with green fields, clear seas and clean air.
He looked up into the sky, half expecting to see curious faces looking down on him from above like students studying an ant colony, but the sky was empty, though it was darkening at an unnatural rate. The world around him was changing before his eyes from the Earth that had once existed to the barren wasteland of Terra.
Sejanus followed his gaze and said, 'It's beginning.'
'What is?' asked Horus.
'Your mind and body are dying and this world is beginning to collapse into Chaos. That's why they sent me back, to guide you to the truth that will allow you to return to your body.'
Even as Sejanus spoke, the sky began to waver and he could see hints of the roiling sea of the Immaterium seething behind the clouds.
'You keep saying "they",' said Horus. 'Who are "they" and why are they interested in me?'
'Great intelligences dwell in the warp,' explained Sejanus, casting wary glances at the dissolution of the sky. 'They do not communicate as we do and this is the only way they could reach you.'
'I don't like the sound of this, Hastur,' warned Horus.
'There is no malice in this place. There is power and potential, yes, but no malice, simply the desire to exist. Events in our galaxy are destroying this realm and these powers have chosen you to be their emissary in their dealings with the material world.'
'And what if I don't want to be their emissary?'
'Then you will die,' said Sejanus. 'Only they are powerful enough to save your life now.'
'If they're so powerful, what do they need me for?'
'They are powerful, but they cannot exist in the material universe and must work through emissaries,' replied Sejanus. 'You are a man of strength and ambition and they know there is no other being in the galaxy powerful enough or worthy enough to do what must be done.'
Despite his satisfaction at being so des |
what if I don't want to be their emissary?'
'Then you will die,' said Sejanus. 'Only they are powerful enough to save your life now.'
'If they're so powerful, what do they need me for?'
'They are powerful, but they cannot exist in the material universe and must work through emissaries,' replied Sejanus. 'You are a man of strength and ambition and they know there is no other being in the galaxy powerful enough or worthy enough to do what must be done.'
Despite his satisfaction at being so described, Horus did not like what he was hearing. He sensed no deceit in Sejanus, though a warning voice in his head reminded him that the silver-eyed warrior standing before him could not truly be Sejanus.
'They have no interest in the material universe, it is anathema to them, they simply wish to preserve their own realm from destruction,' continued Sejanus as the chemical reek of the world beyond the illusion returned, and a stinking wind arose. 'In return for your aid, they can give you a measure of their power and the means to realize your every ambition.'
Horus saw the lurking world of brazen iron become more substantial as the warp and weft of reality began to buckle beneath his feet. Cracks of dark light shimmered through the splitting earth and Horus could hear the sound of howling wolves drawing near.
'We have to move!' shouted Sejanus as the wolf pack loped from a disintegrating copse of trees. To Horus, it sounded as though their howls desperately called his name.
Sejanus ran back to the river and a shimmering flat oblong of light rose from the boiling water. Horus heard whispers and strange mutterings issuing from beyond it, and a sense of dark premonition seized him as he switched his gaze between this strange light and the wolves.
'I'm not sure about this,' said Horus as the sky shed fat droplets of acid rain.
'Come on, the gateway is our only way out!' cried Sejanus, heading towards the light. 'As a great man once said, "Towering genius disdains the beaten path; it seeks regions hitherto unexplored".'
'You're quoting me back to myself?' said Horus as the wind blew in howling gusts.
'Why not? Your words will be quoted for centuries to come.'
Horus smiled, liking the idea of being quotable, and set off after Sejanus.
'Where does this gate lead?' shouted Horus over the wind and the howling of wolves.
'To the truth,' replied Sejanus.
THE CRATER BEGAN to fill as the sun finally set, hundreds of vehicles of all descriptions finally completing their journey from the Imperial deployment zone to this place of pilgrimage. The Davinites watched the arrival of these convoys with a mixture of surprise and confusion, incredulous as each vehicle was abandoned, and its passengers made their way towards the Delphos.
Within the hour, thousands of people had gathered, and more were arriving every minute. Most of these new arrivals milled about in an undirected mass until the Davinites began circulating amongst them, helping to find somewhere that belongings could be set down and arranging shelter as a hard rain began to fall.
Headlights stretched all the way along the forgotten causeway and through the valley to the plains below. As night closed in on Davin, songs in praise of the Warmaster filled the air, and the flickering glow of thousands of candles joined the light of the torches ringing the gold-skinned Delphos.
FOURTEEN
The forgotten
Living mythology
Primogenesis
PASSING THROUGH THE gate of light was akin to stepping from one room to another. Where once had been a world on the verge of dissolution, now Horus found himself standing amid a heaving mass of people, in a huge circular plaza surrounded by soaring towers and magnificently appointed buildings of marble. Thousands of people filled the square, and since he was half again as tall as the tallest, Horus could see that thousands more waited to enter from nine arterial boulevards.
Strangely, none of these people remarked on the sudden arrival of two giant warriors in their midst. A cluster of statues stood at the centre of the plaza, and droning chants drifted from corroded speakers set on the buildings, as the mass of humanity marched in mindless procession around them. A pealing clangour of bells tolled from each building.
'Where are we?' asked Horus, looking up at the great eagle-fronted buildings, their golden spires and their colossal stained glass rosary windows. Each structure vied with its neighbour for supremacy of height and ostentation, and Horus's eye for architectural proportion and elegance saw them as vulgar expressions of devotion.
'I do not know the name of this palace,' said Sejanus. 'I know only what I have seen here, but I believe it to be some kind of shrine world.'
'A shrine world? A shrine to what?'
'Not what,' said Sejanus, pointing to the statues in the centre of the plaza. 'Who.'
Horus looked more closely at the enormous statues, encircled by the thronged masses. The outer ring of statues was carved from white marble, and each gleaming warrior was clad in full Astartes battle plate. They surrounded the central figure, which was likewise armoured in a magnificent suit of gold armour that gleamed and sparkled with precious gems. This figure carried a flaming torch high, the light of it illuminating everything around him. The symbolism was clear - this central figure was bringing his light to the people, and his warriors were there to protect him.
The gold warrior was clearly a king or hero of some kind, his features regal and patrician, though the sculptor had exaggerated them to ludicrous proportions. The proportions of the statues surrounding the central figure were similarly grotesque.
'Who is the gold statue meant to be?' asked Horus.
'You don't recognize him?' asked Sejanus.
'No. Should I?'
'Let's take a closer look.'
Horus followed as Sejanus set off into the crowd, making his way towards the centre of the plaza, and the crowds parted before them without so much as a raised eyebrow.
'Can't these people see us?' he asked.
'No,' said Sejanus. 'Or if they can, they will forget us in an instant. We move amongst them as ghosts and none here will remember us.'
Horus stopped in front of a man dressed in a threadbare scapular, who shuffled around the statues on bloodied feet. His hair was tonsured and he clutched a handful of carved bones tied together with twine. A bloody bandage covered one eye and a long strip of parchment pinned to his scapular dangled to the ground.
With barely a pause, the man stepped around him, but Horus put out his arm and prevented his progress. Again, the man attempted to pass Horus, but again he was prevented.
'Please, sir,' said the man without looking up. 'I must get by.'
'Why?' asked Horus. 'What are you doing?'
The man looked puzzled, as though struggling to recall what he had been asked.
'I must get by,' he said again.
Exasperated by the man's unhelpful answers, Horus stepped aside to let him pass. The man bowed his head and said, 'The Emperor watch over you, sir.'
Horus felt a clammy sensation crawl along his spine at the words. He pushed through the unresisting crowds towards the centre of the plaza as a terrible suspicion began forming in his gut. He caught up to Sejanus, who stood atop a stepped plinth at the foot of the statues, where a huge pair of bronze eagles formed the backdrop to a tall lectern.
A hugely fat official in a gold chasuble and tall mitre of silk and gold read aloud from a thick, leather-bound book, his words carried over the crowd via silver trumpets held aloft by what looked like winged infants that floated above him.
As Horus approached, he saw that the official was human only from the waist up, a complex series of hissing pistons and brass rods making up his lower half and fusing him with the lectern, which he now saw was mounted on a wheeled base.
Horus ignored him, looking up at the statues, finally seeing them for what they were.
Though their faces were unrecognizable to one who knew them as Horus did, their identities were unmistakable.
The nearest was Sanguinius, his outstretched wings like the pinions of the eagles that adorned every structure surrounding the plaza. To one side of the Lord of the Angels was Rogal Dorn, the unfurled wings haloing his head, unmistakable; on the other, was someone who could only be Leman Russ, his hair carved to resemble a wild mane, and wearing a cloak of wolf pelts draped around his massive shoulders.
Horus circled the statues, seeing other familiar images: Guilliman, Corax, the Lion, Ferrus Manus, Vulkan and finally Jaghatai Khan.
There could be no doubting the identity of the central figure now, and Horus looked up into the carved face of the Emperor. No doubt the inhabitants of this world thought it magnificent, but Horus knew this was a poor thing, failing spectacularly to capture the sheer dynamism and force of the Emperor's personality.
With the additional height offered by the statues' plinth, Horus looked out over the slowly circling mass of people and wondered what they thought they did in this place.
Pilgrims, thought Horus, the word leaping, unbidden, to his mind.
Coupled with the ostentation and vulgar adornments he saw on the surrounding buildings, Horus knew that this was not simply a place of devotion, but something much more.
'This is a place of worship,' he said as Sejanus joined him at the foot of Corax's statue, the cool marble perfectly capturing the pallid complexion of his taciturn brother.
Sejanus nodded and said, 'It is an entire world given over to the praise of the Emperor.'
'But why? The Emperor is no god. He spent centuries freeing humanity from the shackles of religion. This makes no sense.'
'Not from where you stand in time, but this is the Imperium that will come to pass if events continue on their present course,' said Sejanus. 'The Emperor has the gift of foresight and he has seen this future time.'
'For what purpose?'
'To destroy the old faiths so that one |
brother.
Sejanus nodded and said, 'It is an entire world given over to the praise of the Emperor.'
'But why? The Emperor is no god. He spent centuries freeing humanity from the shackles of religion. This makes no sense.'
'Not from where you stand in time, but this is the Imperium that will come to pass if events continue on their present course,' said Sejanus. 'The Emperor has the gift of foresight and he has seen this future time.'
'For what purpose?'
'To destroy the old faiths so that one day his cult would more easily supplant them all.'
'No,' said Horus, 'I won't believe that. My father always refuted any notion of divinity. He once said of ancient Earth that there were torches, who were the teachers, but also extinguishers, who were the priests. He would never have condoned this.'
'This this entire world is his temple,' Sejanus said, 'and it is not the only one.'
'There are more worlds like this?'
'Hundreds,' nodded Sejanus, 'probably even thousands.'
'But the Emperor shamed Lorgar for behaviour such as this,' protested Horus. 'The Word Bearers Legion raised great monuments to the Emperor and persecuted entire populations for their lack of faith, but the Emperor would not stand for it and said that Lorgar shamed him with such displays.'
'He wasn't ready for worship then: he didn't have control of the galaxy. That's why he needed you.'
Horus turned away from Sejanus and looked up into the golden face of his father, desperate to refute the words he was hearing. At any other time, he would have struck Sejanus down for such a suggestion, but the evidence was here before him.
He turned to face Sejanus. 'These are some of my brothers, but where are the others? Where am I?'
'I do not know,' replied Sejanus. 'I have walked this place many times, but have never yet seen your likeness.'
'I am his chosen regent!' cried Horus. 'I fought on a thousand battlefields for him. The blood of my warriors is on his hands, and he ignores me like I don't exist?'
'The Emperor has forsaken you, Warmaster,' urged Sejanus. 'Soon he will turn his back on his people to win his place amongst the gods. He cares only for himself and his power and glory. We were all deceived. We have no place in his grand scheme, and when the time comes, he will spurn us all and ascend to godhood. While we were fighting war after war in his name, he was secretly building his power in the warp.'
The droning chant of the official - a priest, realized Horus - continued as the pilgrims maintained the slow procession around their god, and Sejanus's words hammered against his skull.
'This can't be true,' whispered Horus.
'What does a being of the Emperor's magnitude do after he has conquered the galaxy? What is left for him but godhood? What use has he for those whom he leaves behind?'
'No!' shouted Horus, stepping from the plinth and smashing the droning priest to the ground. The augmented preacher hybrid was torn from the pulpit and lay screaming in a pool of blood and oil. His cries were carried across the plaza by the trumpets of the floating infants, though none of the crowd seemed inclined to help him.
Horus set off into the crowded plaza in a blind fury, leaving Sejanus behind on the plinth of statues. Once again, the crowd parted before his headlong dash, as unresponsive to his leaving as they had been to his arrival. Within moments he reached the edge of the plaza and made his way down the nearest of the arterial boulevards. People filled the street, but they ignored him as he pushed his way through them, each face turned in rapture to an image of the Emperor.
Without Sejanus beside him, Horus realized that he was completely alone. He heard the howl of a distant wolf, its cry once again sounding as though it called out to him. He stopped in the centre of a crowded street, listening for the wolf howl again, but it was silenced as suddenly as it had come.
The crowds flowed around him as he listened, and Horus saw that once again, no one paid him the slightest bit of attention. Not since Horus had parted from his father and brothers had he felt so isolated. Suddenly he felt the pain of being confronted with the scale of his own vanity and pride as he realized how much he thrived on the adoration of those around him.
On every face, he saw the same blind devotion as he had witnessed in those that circled the statues, a beloved reverence for a man he called father. Didn't these people realize the victories that had won their freedom had been won with Horus's blood?
It should be Horus's statue surrounded by his brother primarchs, not the Emperor's!
Horus seized the nearest devotee and shook him violently by the shoulders, shouting, 'He is not a god! He is not a god!'
The pilgrim's neck snapped with an audible crack and Horus felt the bones of the man's shoulders splinter beneath his iron grip. Horrified, he dropped the dead man and ran deeper into the labyrinth of the shrine world, taking turns at random, as he sought to lose himself in its crowded streets.
Each fevered change of direction took him along thronged avenues of worshippers and marvels dedicated to the glory of the God-Emperor: thoroughfares where every cobblestone was inscribed with prayer, kilometre high ossuaries of gold plated bones, and forests of marble columns, with unnumbered saints depicted upon them.
Random demagogues roamed the streets, one fanatically mortifying his flesh with prayer whips while another held up two squares of orange cloth by the corners and screamed that he would not wear them. Horus could make no sense of any of it.
Vast prayer ships drifted over this part of the shrine city, monstrously bloated zeppelins with sweeping brass sails and enormous prop-driven motors. Long prayer banners hung from their fat silver hulls, and hymns blared from hanging loudspeakers shaped like ebony skulls.
Horus passed a great mausoleum where flocks of ivory-skinned angels with brass-feathered wings flew from dark archways and descended into the crowds gathered in front of the building. The solemn angels swooped over the wailing masses, occasionally gathering to pluck some ecstatic soul from the pilgrims, and cries of adoration and praise followed each supplicant as he was carried through the dread portals of the mausoleum.
Horus saw death venerated in the coloured glass of every window, celebrated in the carvings on every door, and revered in the funereal dirges that echoed from the trumpets of winged children who giggled as they circled like birds of prey. Flapping banners of bone clattered, and the wind whistled through the eye sockets of skulls set into shrine caskets on bronze poles. Morbidity hung like a shroud upon this world, and Horus could not reconcile the dark, gothic solemnity of this new religion with the dynamic force of truth, reason and confidence that had driven the Great Crusade into the stars.
High temples and grim shrines passed him in a blur: cenobites and preachers haranguing the pilgrims from every street corner to the peal of doomsayers' bells. Everywhere Horus looked, he saw walls adorned with frescoes, paintings and bas relief works of familiar faces - his brothers and the Emperor himself.
Why was there no representation of Horus?
It was as if he had never existed. He sank to his knees, raising his fists to the sky.
'Father, why have you forsaken me?'
THE VENGEFUL SPIRIT felt empty to Loken, and he knew it was more than simply the absence of people. The solid, reassuring presence of the Warmaster, so long taken for granted, was achingly absent without him on board. The halls of the ship were emptier, more hollow, as though it were a weapon stripped of its ammunition - once powerful, but now simply inert metal.
Though portions of the ship were still filled with people, huddled in small groups and holding hands around groups of candles, there was an emptiness to the place that left Loken feeling similarly hollowed out.
Each group he passed swarmed around him, the normal respect for an Astartes warrior forgotten in their desperation to know the fate of the Warmaster. Was he dead? Was he alive? Had the Emperor reached out from Terra to save his beloved son?
Loken angrily brushed each group off, pushing through them without answering their questions as he made his way to Archive Chamber Three. He knew Sindermann would be there - he was always there these days - researching and poring over his books like a man possessed. Loken needed answers about the serpent lodge, and he needed them now.
Time was of the essence and he'd already made one stop at the medical deck in order to hand over the anathame to Apothecary Vaddon.
'Be very careful, apothecary,' warned Loken, reverently placing the wooden casket on the steel operating slab between them. 'This is a kinebrach weapon called an anathame. It was forged from a sentient xeno metal and is utterly lethal. I believe it to be the source of the Warmaster's malady. Do what you need to do to find out what happened, but do it quickly.'
Vaddon had nodded, dumbfounded that Loken had returned with something he could actually use. He lifted the anathame by its golden studded pommel and placed it within a spectrographic chamber.
'I can't promise anything, Captain Loken,' said Vaddon, 'but I will do whatever is in my power to find you an answer.'
'That's all I ask, but the sooner the better; and tell no one that you have this weapon.'
Vaddon nodded and turned to his work, leaving Loken to find Kyril Sindermann in the archives of the mighty ship. The helplessness that had seized him earlier vanished now that he had a purpose. He was actively trying to save the Warmaster, and that knowledge gave him fresh hope that there might yet be a way to bring him back unharmed in body and spirit.
As always, the archives were quiet, but now there was a deeper sense of desolation. Loken strained to hear anything at all, finally catching the scratching of a quill-pen from deeper in the stacks of books. S |
Sindermann in the archives of the mighty ship. The helplessness that had seized him earlier vanished now that he had a purpose. He was actively trying to save the Warmaster, and that knowledge gave him fresh hope that there might yet be a way to bring him back unharmed in body and spirit.
As always, the archives were quiet, but now there was a deeper sense of desolation. Loken strained to hear anything at all, finally catching the scratching of a quill-pen from deeper in the stacks of books. Swiftly he made his way towards the sound, knowing before he reached the source that it was his old mentor. Only Kyril Sindermann scratched at the page with such intense pen strokes.
Sure enough, Loken found Sindermann sitting at his usual table and upon seeing him, Loken knew with absolute certainty that he had not left this place since last they had spoken. Bottles of water and discarded food packs lay scattered around the table, and the haggard Sindermann now sported a growth of fine white hair on his cheeks and chin.
'Garviel,' said Sindermann without looking up. 'You came back. Is the Warmaster dead?'
'No,' replied Loken. 'At least I don't think so. Not yet anyway.'
Sindermann looked up from his books, the haphazard piles of which were now threatening to topple onto the floor.
'You don't think so?'
'I haven't seen him since I saw him on the apothecaries' slab,' confessed Loken.
'Then why are you here? It surely can't be for a lesson on the principles and ethics of civilization. What's happening?'
'I don't know,' admitted Loken. 'Something bad I think. I need your knowledge of... things esoteric, Kyril,'
'Things esoteric?' repeated Sindermann, putting down his quill. 'Now I am intrigued.'
'The Legion's quiet order has taken the Warmaster to the Temple of the Serpent Lodge on Davin. They've placed him in a temple they call the Delphos and say that the "eternal spirits of dead things" will heal him.'
'Serpent Lodge you say?' asked Sindermann, plucking books seemingly at random from the cluttered piles on his desk. 'Serpents... now that is interesting.'
'What is?'
'Serpents,' repeated Sindermann. 'Since the very beginnings of time, on every continent where humanity worshipped divinity, the serpent has been recognized and accepted as a god. From the steaming jungles of the Afrique islands to the icy wastes of Alba, serpents have been worshipped, feared and adored in equal measure. I believe that serpent mythology is probably the most widespread mythology known to mankind.'
'Then how did it get to Davin?' asked Loken.
'It's not difficult to understand,' explained Sindermann. 'You see, myths weren't originally expressed in verbal or written form because language was deemed inadequate to convey the truth expressed in the stories. Myths move not with words, Garviel, but with storytellers and wherever you find people, no matter how primitive or how far they've been separated from the cradle of humanity, you'll always find storytellers. Most of these myths were probably enacted, chanted, danced or sung, more often than not in hypnotic or hallucinatory states. It must have been quite a sight, but anyway, this method of retelling was said to allow the creative energies and relationships behind and beneath the natural world to be brought into the conscious realm. Ancient peoples believed that myths created a bridge from the metaphysical world to the physical one.'
Sindermann flicked through the pages of what looked like a new book encased in fresh red leather and turned the book so Loken could see.
'Here, you see it here quite clearly.'
Loken looked at the pictures, seeing images of naked tribesmen dancing with long snake-topped poles as well as snakes and spirals painted onto primitive pottery. Other pictures showed vases with gigantic snakes winding over suns, moons and stars, while still more showed snakes appearing below growing plants or coiled above the bellies of pregnant women.
'What am I looking at?' he asked.
'Artifacts recovered from a dozen different worlds during the Great Crusade,' said Sindermann, jabbing his finger at the pictures. 'Don't you see? We carry our myths with us, Garviel, we don't reinvent them.'
Sindermann turned the page to show yet more images of snakes and said, 'Here the snake is the symbol of energy, spontaneous, creative energy... and of immortality.'
'Immortality?'
'Yes, in ancient times, men believed that the serpent's ability to shed its skin and thus renew its youth made it privy to the secrets of death and rebirth. They saw the moon, waxing and waning, as the celestial body capable of this same ability, and of course, the lunar cycle has long associations with the life-creating rhythm of the female. The moon became the lord of the twin mysteries of birth and death, and the serpent was its earthly counterpart.'
'The moon...' said Loken.
'Yes,' continued Sindermann, now well into his flow. 'In early rites of initiation where the aspirant was seen to die and be reborn, the moon was the goddess mother and the serpent the divine father. It's not hard to see why the connection between the serpent and healing becomes a permanent facet of serpent worship.'
'Is that what this is,' breathed Loken. 'A rite of initiation?'
Sindermann shrugged. 'I couldn't say, Garviel. I'd need to see more of it.'
'Tell me,' snarled Loken. 'I need to hear all you know.'
Startled by the power of Loken's urging, Sindermann reached for several more books, leafing through them as the 10th Company captain loomed over him.
'Yes, yes...' he muttered, flipping back and forth through the well-thumbed pages. 'Yes, here it is. Ah... yes, a word for serpent in one of the lost languages of old Earth was "nahash", which apparently means, "to guess". It appears that it was then translated to mean a number of different things, depending on which etymological root you believe.'
'Translated to mean what?' asked Loken. 'Its first rendition is as either "enemy" or "adversary", but it seems to be more popularly transliterated as "Seytan".'
'Seytan,' said Loken. 'I've heard that name before.'
'We... ah, spoke of it at the Whisperheads,' said Sindermann in a low voice, looking about him as though someone might be listening. 'It was said to be a nightmarish force of deviltry cast down by a golden hero on Terra. As we now know, the Samus spirit was probably the local equivalent for the inhabitants of Sixty-Three Nineteen.'
'Do you believe that?' asked Loken. 'That Samus was a spirit?'
'Of some form, yes,' said Sindermann honestly. 'I believe that what I saw beneath the mountains was more than simply a xenos of some kind, no matter what the Warmaster says.'
'And what about this serpent as Seytan?'
Sindermann, pleased to have a subject upon which he could illuminate, shook his head and said, 'No. If you look closer, you see the word "serpent" has its origination in the Olympian root languages as "drakon", the cosmic serpent that was seen as a symbol of Chaos.'
'Chaos?' cried Loken. 'No!'
'Yes,' went on Sindermann, hesitantly pointing out a passage of text in yet another of his books. 'It is this "chaos", or "serpent", which must be overcome to create order and maintain life in any meaningful way. This serpentine dragon was a creature of great power and its sacred years were times of great ambition and incredible risk. It's said that events occurring in a year of the dragon are magnified threefold in intensity.'
Loken tried to hide his horror at Sindermann's words, the ritual significance of the serpent and its place in mythology cementing his conviction that what was happening on Davin was horribly wrong. He looked down at the book before him and said, 'What's this?'
'A passage from the Book of Atum,' said Sindermann, as though afraid to tell him. 'I only found it quite recently, I swear. I didn't think anything of it, I still don't really... After all, it's just nonsense isn't it?'
Loken forced himself to look at the book, feeling his heart grow heavy with each word he read from its yellowed pages.
I am Horus, forged of the Oldest Gods,
I am he who gave way to Khaos
I am that great destroyer of all.
I am he who did what seemed good to him,
And set doom in the palace of my will.
Mine is the fate of those who move along
This serpentine path.
'I'm no student of poetry,' snapped Loken. 'What does it mean?'
'It's a prophecy,' said Sindermann hesitantly. 'It speaks of a time when the world returns to its original chaos and the hidden aspects of the supreme gods become the new serpent.'
'I don't have time for metaphors, Kyril,' warned Loken.
'At its most basic level,' said Sindermann, 'it speaks about the death of the universe.'
SEJANUS FOUND HIM on the steps of a vaulted basilica, its wide doorway flanked by tall skeletons wrapped in funeral robes and holding flaming censers out before them. Though darkness had fallen, the streets of the city still thronged with worshippers, each carrying a lit taper or lantern to light the way.
Horus looked up as Sejanus approached, thinking that the processions of light through the city would have seemed beautiful at any other time. The pageantry and pomp of the palanquins and altars being carried along the streets would previously have irritated him, were the procession in his honour, but now he craved them.
'Have you seen all you need to see?' asked Sejanus, sitting beside him on the steps.
'Yes,' replied Horus. 'I wish to leave this place.'
'We can leave whenever you want, just say the word,' said Sejanus. 'There is more you need to see anyway, and our time is not infinite. Your body is dying and you must make your choice before you are beyond the help of even the powers that dwell in the warp.'
'This choice,' asked Horus, 'Does it involve what I think it does?'
'Only you can decide that,' said Sejanus as the doors to the basilica opened behind them.
Horus looked over his shoulder, seeing a familiar oblong of light where he would have expected to see |
you want, just say the word,' said Sejanus. 'There is more you need to see anyway, and our time is not infinite. Your body is dying and you must make your choice before you are beyond the help of even the powers that dwell in the warp.'
'This choice,' asked Horus, 'Does it involve what I think it does?'
'Only you can decide that,' said Sejanus as the doors to the basilica opened behind them.
Horus looked over his shoulder, seeing a familiar oblong of light where he would have expected to see a darkened vestibule.
'Very well,' he said, standing and turning towards the light. 'So where are we going now?'
'To the beginning,' answered Sejanus.
STEPPING THROUGH THE light, Horus found himself standing in what appeared to be a colossal laboratory, its cavernous walls formed of white steel and silver panels. The air tasted sterile, and Horus could tell that the temperature of the air was close to freezing. Hundreds of figures encased in fully enclosed white oversuits with reflective gold visors filled the laboratory, working at row upon row of humming gold machines that sat atop long steel benches.
Hissing puffs of vapour feathered the air above each worker's head, and long tubes coiled around the legs and arms of the white suits before hooking into cumbersome looking backpacks. Though no words were spoken, a sense of the implementation of grand designs was palpable. Horus wandered through the facility, its inhabitants ignoring him as completely as those of the shrine world had. Instinctively, he knew that he and Sejanus were far beneath the surface of whatever world they had traveled to.
'Where are we now?' he asked. 'When are we?'
'Terra,' said Sejanus, 'at the dawn of a new age,'
'What does that mean?'
In answer to his question, Sejanus pointed to the far wall of the laboratory where a shimmering energy field protected a huge silver steel door. The sign of the aquila was etched into the metal, along with strange, mystical looking symbols that were out of place in a laboratory dedicated to the pursuit of science. Just looking at the door made Horus uneasy, as though whatever lay beyond was somehow a threat to him.
'What lies beyond that door?' asked Horus, backing away from the silver portal.
'Truths you will not want to see,' replied Sejanus, 'and answers you will not want to hear.'
Horus felt a strange, previously unknown sensation stir in his belly and fought to quell it as he realized that, despite all the cunning wrought into his creation, the sensation was fear. Nothing good could live behind that door. Its secrets were best forgotten, and whatever knowledge lay beyond should be left hidden.
'I don't want to know,' said Horus, turning from the door. 'It's too much.'
'You fear to seek answers?' asked Sejanus angrily. 'This is not the Horus I followed into battle for two centuries. The Horus I knew would not shirk from uncomfortable truths.'
'Maybe not, but I still don't want to see it,' said Horus.
'I'm afraid you don't have a choice, my friend,' said Sejanus. Horus looked up to see that he now stood in front of the door, wisps of freezing air gusting from its base as it slowly raised and the energy field dissipated. Flashing yellow lights swirled to either side of the door, but no one in the laboratory paid any attention as the door slid up into the paneled wall.
Dark knowledge lay beyond, of that Horus was certain, just as certainly as he knew that he could not ignore the temptation of discovering the secrets it kept hidden. He had to know what it concealed. Sejanus was right: it wasn't in his nature to back away from anything, no matter what it was. He had faced all the terrors the galaxy had to show him and had not flinched. This would be no different. 'Very well,' he said. 'Show me.'
Sejanus smiled and slapped his palm against Horus's shoulder guard, saying, 'I knew we could count on you, my friend. This will not be easy for you, but know that we would not show you this unless it was necessary.'
'Do what you must,' said Horus, shaking off the hand. For the briefest instant, Sejanus's reflection blurred like a shimmering mask in the gleaming metal of the door, and Horus fancied he saw a reptilian grin on his friend's face. 'Let's just get it done.'
They walked through the icy mist together, passing along a wide, steel-walled corridor that led to an identical door, which also slid into the ceiling as they approached.
The chamber beyond was perhaps half the size of the laboratory. Its walls were pristine and sterile, and it was empty of technicians and scientists. The floor was smooth concrete and the temperature cool rather than cold.
A raised central walkway ran the length of the chamber with ten large cylindrical tanks the size of boarding torpedoes lying flat to either side of it, long serial numbers stenciled on their flanks. Steam gusted from the top of each tank like breath. Beneath the serial numbers were the same mystical symbols he had seen on the door leading to this place.
Each tank was connected to a collection of strange machines, whose purpose Horus could not even begin to guess at. Their technologies were unlike anything he had ever seen, their construction beyond even his incredible intellect.
He climbed the metal stairs that led to the walkway, hearing strange sounds like fists on metal as he reached the top. Now atop the walkway, he could see that each tank had a wide hatchway at its end, with a wheel handle in its centre and a thick sheet of armoured glass above it.
Brilliant light flickered behind each block of glass and the very air thrummed with potential. Something about all this seemed dreadfully familiar to Horus and he felt an irresistible urge to know what lay within the tanks while simultaneously dreading what he might see.
'What are these?' he asked as he heard Sejanus climbing up behind him.
'I'm not surprised you don't remember. It's been over two hundred years.'
Horus leaned forward and wiped his gauntlet across the fogged glass of the first tank's hatch. He squinted against the brightness, straining to see what lay within. The light was blinding, a motion blurred shape within twisting like dark smoke in the wind.
Something saw him. Something moved closer.
'What do you mean?' asked Horus, fascinated by the strange, formless being that swam through the light of the tank. Its motion slowed, and it became a silhouette as it moved closer to the glass, its form settling into something more solid.
The tank hummed with power, as though the metal were barely able to contain the energy generated by the creature contained within it.
'These are the Emperor's most secret geno-vaults beneath the Himalayan peaks,' said Sejanus. 'This is where you were created.'
Horus wasn't listening. He was staring through the glass in amazement at a pair of liquid eyes that were the mirror of his own.
FIFTEEN
Revelations
Dissent
Scattering
IN THE TWO days since the Warmaster's departure, the Vengeful Spirit had become a ghost ship, the mighty vessel having hemorrhaged Landers, carriers, skiffs and any other craft capable of making it to the surface to follow Horus to Davin.
This suited Ignace Karkasy fine as he marched with newfound purpose and practiced insouciance through the decks of the ship, a canvas satchel slung over one shoulder. Each time he passed a public area of the ship he would check for anyone watching and liberally spread a number of sheets of paper around on desks, tables and couches.
The ache in his shoulder was lessening the more copies of The Truth is All We Have he distributed from the satchel, each sheet bearing three of what he considered to be his most powerful works to date. Uncaring Gods was his personal favorites, unfavorably comparing the Astartes warriors to the ancient Titans of myth; a powerful piece that he knew was worthy of a wider audience.
He knew he had to be careful with such works, but the passion burned in him too brightly to be contained.
He'd managed to get his hands on a cheap bulk printer with ridiculous ease, acquiring one from the first junkyard dog he'd approached with no more than a few moments' effort. It was not a good quality machine, or even one he would have looked twice at on Terra, but even so it had cost him the bulk of his winnings at merci merci. It was a poor thing, but it did the job, even though his billet now stank of printers' ink.
Humming quietly to himself, Karkasy continued through the civilian decks, coming at last to the Retreat, careful now that he was entering areas where he was known, and where there might be others around.
His fears were unfounded as the Retreat was empty, making it even more depressing and rundown-looking. One should never see a drinking establishment well lit, he thought, it just makes it look even sadder. He made his way through the Retreat, placing a couple of sheets on each table.
Karkasy froze as he heard the clink of a bottle on a glass, his hand outstretched to another table.
'What are you doing?' asked a cultured, but clearly drunk, female voice.
Karkasy turned and saw a bedraggled woman slumped in one of the booths at the far end of the Retreat, which explained why he hadn't seen her. She was in shadow, but he instantly recognised her as Petronella Vivar, the Warmaster's documentarist, though her appearance was a far cry from when he had last seen her on Davin.
No, that wasn't right, he remembered. He had seen her on the embarkation deck as the Astartes had returned with the Warmaster.
Obviously, the experience hadn't failed to leave its mark on her.
'Those papers,' she said. 'What are they?'
Karkasy guiltily dropped the sheets he had been holding onto the tabletop and shifted the satchel so that it rested at his back.
'Nothing really,' he said, moving down the row of booths towards her. 'Just some poems I'd like people to read.'
'Poetry? Is it any good? I could use something uplifting.' He knew he should leave her to her maudlin solitude, but the egoti |
ith the Warmaster.
Obviously, the experience hadn't failed to leave its mark on her.
'Those papers,' she said. 'What are they?'
Karkasy guiltily dropped the sheets he had been holding onto the tabletop and shifted the satchel so that it rested at his back.
'Nothing really,' he said, moving down the row of booths towards her. 'Just some poems I'd like people to read.'
'Poetry? Is it any good? I could use something uplifting.' He knew he should leave her to her maudlin solitude, but the egotist in him couldn't help but respond. 'Yes, I think they're some of my best.'
'Can I read them?'
'I wouldn't right now, my dear,' he said. 'Not if you're looking for something light. They're a bit dark.'
'A bit dark,' she laughed, the sound harsh and ugly. 'You have no idea.'
'It's Vivar isn't it?' asked Karkasy, approaching her booth. 'That's your name isn't it?'
She looked up, and Karkasy, an expert in gauging levels of inebriation in others, saw that she was drunk to the point of insensibility. Three bottles sat drained on the table and a fourth lay in pieces on the floor.
'Yes, that's me, Petronella Vivar,' she said. 'Palatina Majoria of House Carpinus, writer and fraud... and, I think, very drunk.'
'I can see that, but what do you mean by fraud?'
'Fraud,' she slurred, taking another drink. 'I came here to tell the glory of Horus and the splendid brotherhood of the primarchs, you know? Told Horus when I met him that if he didn't let me do it he could go to hell. Thought I'd lost my chance right there and then, but he laughed!'
'He laughed?'
She nodded. 'Yes, laughed, but he let me do it anyway. Think he might have thought I'd be amusing to keep around or something. I thought I was ready for anything.'
'And has it proved to be all you hoped it would be, my dear Petronella?'
'No, not really if I'm honest. Want a drink? I'll tell you about it.'
Karkasy nodded and fetched himself a glass from the bar before sitting across from her. She poured him some wine, getting more on the table than in the glass.
'Thank you,' he said. 'So why is it not what you thought it would be? There's many a remembrancer would think such a position would be a documentarist's dream. Mersadie Oliton would have killed to land such a role.'
'Who?'
'A friend of mine,' explained Karkasy. 'She's also a documentarist.'
'She wouldn't want it, trust me,' said Petronella, and Karkasy could see that the puffiness around her eyes was due as much to tears as to alcohol. 'Some illusions are best kept. Everything I thought I knew... upside down, just like that! Trust me, she doesn't want this.'
'Oh, I think she might,' said Karkasy, taking a drink.
She shook her head and took a closer look at him, as though seeing him for the first time.
'Who are you?' she asked suddenly. 'I don't know you.'
'My name is Ignace Karkasy,' he said, puffing out his chest. 'Winner of the Ethiopic Laureate and-'
'Karkasy? I know that name...' she said, rubbing the heel of her palm against her temple as she sought to recall him. 'Wait, you're a poet aren't you?'
'I am indeed,' he said. 'Do you know my work?'
She nodded. 'You write poetry. Bad poetry I think, I don't remember.'
Stung by her casual dismissal of his work, he resorted to petulance and said, 'Well what have you written that's so bloody great? Can't say I remember reading anything you've written.'
'Ha! You'll remember what I'm going to write, I'll tell you that for nothing!'
'Really?' quipped Karkasy, gesturing at the empty bottles on the table. 'And what might that be? Memoirs of an Inebriated Socialite? Vengeful Spirits of the Vengeful Spirit?'
'You think you're so clever, don't you?'
'I have my moments,' said Karkasy, knowing that there wasn't much challenge in scoring points over a drunken woman, but enjoying it nonetheless. Anyway, it would be pleasant to take this spoiled rich girl - who was complaining about the biggest break of her life - down a peg or two.
'You don't know anything,' she snapped.
'Don't I?' he asked. 'Why don't you illuminate me then?'
'Fine! I will.'
And she told Ignace Karkasy the most incredible tale he'd ever heard in his life.
'WHY DID YOU bring me here?' asked Horus, backing away from the silver tank. The eyes on the other side of the glass watched him curiously, clearly aware of him in a way that everyone else they had encountered on this strange odyssey was not. Though he knew with utter certainty who those eyes belonged to, he couldn't accept that this sterile chamber far beneath the earth was where the glory of his life had begun.
Raised on Cthonia under the black smog of the smelteries - that had been his home, his earliest memories a blur of confusing images and feelings. Nothing in his memory recalled this place or the awareness that must have grown within...
'You have seen the ultimate goal of the Emperor, my friend,' said Sejanus. 'Now it is time for you to see how he began his quest for godhood.'
'With the primarchs?' said Horus. 'That makes no sense.'
'It makes perfect sense. You were to be his generals. Like unto gods, you would bestride planets and claim back the galaxy for him. You were a weapon, Horus, a weapon to be cast aside once blunted and past all usefulness.'
Horus turned from Sejanus and marched along the walkway, stopping periodically to peer through the glass of the tanks. He saw something different in each one, light and form indistinguishable, organisms like architecture, eyes and wheels turning in circles of fire. Power like nothing he had known was at work, and he could feel the potent energies surrounding and protecting the tanks, rippling across his skin like waves in the air.
He stopped by the tank with XI stenciled upon it and placed his hand against the smooth steel, feeling the untapped glories that might have lain ahead for what grew within, but knowing that they would never come to pass. He leaned forward to look within.
'You know what happens here, Horus,' said Sejanus. 'You are not long for this place.'
'Yes,' said Horus. 'There was an accident. We were lost, scattered across the stars until the Emperor discovered us.'
'No,' said Sejanus. 'There was no accident.' Horus turned from the glass, confused. 'What are you talking about? Of course there was. We were hurled from Terra like leaves in a storm. I came to Cthonia, Russ to Fenris, Sanguinius to Baal and the others to the worlds they were raised on.'
'No, you misunderstand me. I meant that it wasn't an accident,' said Sejanus. 'Look around you. You know how far beneath the earth we are and you saw the protective wards carved on the doors that led here. What manner of accident do you think could reach into this facility and scatter you so far across the galaxy? And what were the chances of you all coming to rest on ancient homeworlds of humanity?'
Horus had no answer for him and leaned on the walkway's railing taking deep breaths as Sejanus approached him. 'What are you suggesting?'
'I am suggesting nothing. I am telling you what happened.'
'You are telling me nothing!' roared Horus. 'You fill my head with speculation and conjecture, but you tell me nothing concrete. Maybe I'm being stupid, I don't know, so explain what you mean in plain words.'
'Very well,' nodded Sejanus. 'I will tell you of your creation.'
THUNDERHEADS RUMBLED OVER the summit of the Delphos, and Euphrati Keeler snapped off a couple of quick picts of the structure's immensity, silhouetted against sheets of purple lighting. She knew the picts were nothing special, the composition banal and pedestrian, but she took them anyway knowing that every moment of this historic time had to be recorded for future generations.
'Are you done?' asked Titus Cassar, who stood a little way behind her. 'The prayer meeting's in a few moments and you don't want to be late.'
'I know, Titus, stop fussing.'
She had met Titus Cassar the day after she had arrived in the valley of the Delphos, following the secret Lectitio Divinitatus symbols to a clandestine prayer meeting he had organized in the shadow of the mighty building. She had been surprised by how many people were part of his congregation, nearly sixty souls, all with their heads bowed and reciting prayers to the Divine Emperor of Mankind.
Cassar had welcomed her into his flock, but people had quickly gravitated to her daily prayers and sermons, preferring them to his. For all his faith, Cassar was no orator and his awkward, spiky delivery left a lot to be desired. He had faith, but he was no iterator, that was for sure. She had worried that he might resent her usurping his group, but he had welcomed it, knowing that he was a follower, not a leader.
In truth, she was no leader either. Like Cassar, she had faith, but felt uncomfortable standing in front of large groups of people. The crowds of the faithful didn't seem to notice, staring at her in rapturous adoration as she delivered the word of the Emperor.
'I'm not fussing, Euphrati.'
'Yes you are.'
'Well, maybe I am, but I have to get back to the Dies Irae before I'm missed. Princeps Turnet will have my hide if he finds out what I've been doing here.'
The mighty war engines of the Legio Mortis stood sentinel over the Warmaster at the mouth of the valley, their bulk too enormous to allow them to enter. The crater looked more like the site of a military muster than a gathering of pilgrims and supplicants: tanks, trucks, flatbeds and mobile command vehicles having carried tens of thousands of people to this place over the past seven days.
Together with the bizarre-looking locals, a huge portion of the Expeditionary fleet filled the crater with makeshift camps all around the Delphos. People had, in a wondrous outpouring of spontaneous feeling, made their way to where the Warmaster lay, and the scale of it still had the power to take Euphrati's breath away. The steps of the temple were thick with offerings to the Warmaster, and she knew that many of the people here had given all they had in the h |
is place over the past seven days.
Together with the bizarre-looking locals, a huge portion of the Expeditionary fleet filled the crater with makeshift camps all around the Delphos. People had, in a wondrous outpouring of spontaneous feeling, made their way to where the Warmaster lay, and the scale of it still had the power to take Euphrati's breath away. The steps of the temple were thick with offerings to the Warmaster, and she knew that many of the people here had given all they had in the hope that it might speed his recovery in some way.
Keeler had a new passion in her life, but she was still an imagist at heart, and some of the picts she had taken here were amongst her finest work.
'Yes, you're right, we should go,' she said, folding up her picter and hanging it around her neck. She ran her hand through her hair, still not used to how short it was now, but liking how it made her feel.
'Have you thought about what you're going to say tonight?' asked Cassar as they made their way through the thronged site to the prayer meeting.
'No, not really,' she answered. 'I never plan that far ahead. I just let the Emperor's light fill me and then I speak from the heart.'
Cassar nodded, hanging on her every word. She smiled.
'You know, six months ago, I'd have laughed if anyone had said things like that around me.'
'What things?' asked Cassar.
'About the Emperor,' she said, fingering the silver eagle on a chain she kept tucked beneath her remembrancer's robes. 'But I guess a lot can happen to a person in that time.'
'I guess so,' agreed Cassar, making way for a group of Army soldiers. 'The Emperor's light is a powerful force, Euphrati.'
As Keeler and Cassar drew level with the soldiers, a thick-necked bull of a man with a shaved head, slammed his shoulder into Cassar and pitched him to the ground.
'Hey, watch where you're going,' snarled the soldier, looming over Cassar.
Keeler stood over the fallen Cassar and shouted, 'Piss off, you cretin, you hit him!'
The soldier turned, backhanding his fist into Euphrati's jaw, and she dropped to the ground, more shocked than hurt. She struggled to rise as blood filled her mouth, but a pair of hands gripped her shoulders and held her firm to the ground. Two soldiers held her down as the others started kicking the fallen Cassar.
'Get off me!' she yelled.
'Shut up, bitch!' said the first soldier. 'You think we don't know what you're doing? Prayers and stuff to the Emperor? Horus is the one you should be giving thanks to.'
Cassar rolled to his knees, blocking the kicks as best he could, but he was facing three trained soldiers and couldn't block them all. He punched one in the groin and swayed away from a thick-soled boot aimed at his head, finally gaining his feet as a chopping hand struck him on the side of the neck.
Keeler struggled in her captors' grip, but they were too strong. One man reached down to tear the picter from around her neck and she bit his wrist as it came into range of her teeth. He yelped and ripped the picter from her as the other wrenched her head back by the roots of her hair.
'Don't you dare!' she screamed, struggling even harder as the soldier swung the picter by its strap and smashed it to pieces on the ground. Cassar was down on one knee, his face bloody and angry. He freed his pistol from its holster, but a knee connected with his face and knocked him insensible, the pistol clattering to the ground beside him.
'Titus!' shouted Keeler, fighting like a wildcat and finally managing to free one arm. She reached back and clawed her nails down the face of the man who held her. He screamed and released his grip on her, and she scrambled on her knees to the fallen pistol.
'Get her!' someone shouted. 'Emperor loving witch!'
She reached the pistol, hearing the thud of heavy impacts, and rolled onto her back. She held the gun out in front of her, ready to kill the next bastard that came near her.
Then she saw that she wouldn't have to kill anyone.
Three of the soldiers were down, one was running for his life through the campsite and the last was held in the iron grip of an Astartes warrior. The soldier's feet flailed a metre off the ground as the Astartes held him round the neck with one hand.
'Five to one doesn't seem very sporting now does it?' asked the warrior, and Keeler saw that it was Captain Torgaddon, one of the Mournival. She remembered snapping some fine images of Torgaddon on the Vengeful Spirit and thinking that he was the handsomest of the Sons of Horus.
Torgaddon ripped the name and unit badge from the struggling soldier's uniform, before dropping him and saying, 'You'll be hearing from the Discipline Masters. Now get out of my sight before I kill you.'
Keeler dropped the pistol and scooted over to her picter, cursing as she saw that it and the images contained within it were probably ruined. She pawed through the remains and lifted out the memory coil. If she could get this into the edit engine she kept in her billet quickly enough then perhaps she could save some of the images.
Cassar groaned in pain and she felt a momentary pang of guilt that she'd gone for her smashed picter before him, but it soon passed.
'Are you Keeler?' asked Torgaddon as she slipped the memory coil into her robes.
She looked up, surprised that he knew her name, and said, 'Yes.'
'Good,' he said, offering his hand to help her to her feet. 'You want to tell me what that was all about?' he asked.
She hesitated, not wanting to tell an Astartes warrior the real reason for the assault. 'I don't think they liked the images I was taking,' she said.
'Everyone's a critic, eh?' chuckled Torgaddon, but she could see that he didn't believe her.
'Yeah, but I need to get back to the ship to recover them.'
'Well that's a happy coincidence,' said Torgaddon.
'What do you mean?'
'I've been asked to take you back to the Vengeful Spirit.'
'You have? Why?'
'Does it matter?' asked Torgaddon. 'You're coming back with me.'
'You can at least tell me who wants me back, can't you?'
'No, it's top secret.'
'Really?'
'No, not really, it's Kyril Sindermann.'
The idea of Sindermann sending an Astartes warrior to do his bidding seemed ludicrous to Keeler, and there could only be one reason why the venerable iterator wanted to speak to her. Ignace or Mersadie must have blabbed to him about her new faith, and she felt her anger grow at their unwillingness to understand her newfound truth.
'So the Astartes are at the beck and call of the iterators now?' she snapped.
'Hardly,' said Torgaddon. 'It's a favour to a friend and I think it might be in your own best interests to go back.'
'Why?'
'You ask a lot of questions, Miss Keeler,' said Torgaddon, 'and while that's a trait that probably stands you in good stead as a remembrancer, it might be best for you to be quiet and listen for a change.'
'Am I in trouble?'
Torgaddon stirred the smashed remnants of her picter with his boot and said, 'Let's just say that someone wants to give you some lessons in pictography.'
'THE EMPEROR KNEW he would need the greatest warriors to lead his armies,' began Sejanus. 'To lead such warriors as the Astartes needed commanders like gods. Commanders who were virtually indestructible and could command superhuman warriors in the blink of an eye. They would be engineered to be leaders of men, mighty warlords whose martial prowess was only matched by the Emperor's, each with his own particular skills.'
'The primarchs.'
'Indeed. Only beings of such magnitude could even think of conquering the galaxy. Can you imagine the hubris and will required even to contemplate such an endeavor? What manner of man could even consider it? Who but a primarch could be trusted with such a monumental task? No man, not even the Emperor, could achieve such a god-like undertaking alone. Hence you were created.'
'To conquer the galaxy for humanity,' said Horus.
'No, not for humanity, for the Emperor,' said Sejanus. 'You already know in your heart what awaits you when the Great Crusade is over. You will become a gaoler who polices the Emperor's regime while he ascends to godhood and abandons you all. What sort of reward is that for someone who conquered the galaxy?'
'It is no reward at all,' snarled Horus, hammering his hand into the side of the silver tank before him. The metal buckled and a hairline crack split the toughened glass under his assault. He could hear a desperate drumming from inside, and a hiss of escaping gas whined from the frosted panel of the tank.
'Look around you, Horus,' said Sejanus. 'Do you think that the science of man alone could have created a being such as a primarch? If such technology existed, why not create a hundred Horuses, a thousand? No, a bargain was made that saw you emerge from its forging. I know, for the masters of the warp are as much your father as the Emperor.'
'No!' shouted Horus. 'I won't believe you. The primarchs are my brothers, the Emperor's sons created from his own flesh and blood and each a part of him.'
'Each a part of him, yes, but where did such power come from? He bargained with the gods of the warp for a measure of their power. That is what he invested in you, not his paltry human power.'
'The gods of the warp? What are you talking about, Sejanus?'
'The entities whose realm is being destroyed by the Emperor,' said Sejanus. 'Intelligences, xenos creatures, gods? Does it matter what terminology we use for them? They have such incredible power that they might as well be gods by your reckoning. They command the secrets of life and death and all that lies between. Experience, change, war and decay, they are all are part of the endless cycle of existence, and the gods of the warp hold dominion over them all. Their power flows through your veins and bestows incredible abilities upon you. The Emperor has long known of them and he came to them many centuries ago, offering friendship and devotion.'
'He would never do such a thing!' denied Horus.
'You under |
s well be gods by your reckoning. They command the secrets of life and death and all that lies between. Experience, change, war and decay, they are all are part of the endless cycle of existence, and the gods of the warp hold dominion over them all. Their power flows through your veins and bestows incredible abilities upon you. The Emperor has long known of them and he came to them many centuries ago, offering friendship and devotion.'
'He would never do such a thing!' denied Horus.
'You underestimate his lust for power, my friend,' said Sejanus as they made their way back towards the steps that led down to the laboratory floor. 'The gods of the warp are powerful, but they do not understand this material universe, and the Emperor was able to betray them, stealing away their power for himself. In creating you, he passed on but a tiny measure of that power.'
Horus felt his breath come in short, painful bursts. He wanted to deny Sejanus's words, but part of him knew that this was no lie. Like any man, his future was uncertain, but his past had always been his own. His glories and life had been forged with his own two hands, but even now, they were being stripped away from him by the Emperor's treachery.
'So we are tainted,' whispered Horus. 'All of us.'
'Tainted, no,' said Sejanus, shaking his head. 'The power of the warp simply is. Used wisely and by a man of power it can be a weapon like no other. It can be mastered and it can be a powerful tool for one with the will to use it.'
'Then why did the Emperor not use it well?'
'Because he was weak,' said Sejanus, leaning in close to Horus. 'Unlike you, he lacked the will to master it, and the gods of the warp do not take kindly to those who betray them. The Emperor had taken a measure of their power for himself, but they struck back at him.'
'How?'
'You will see. With the power he stole from them, he was too powerful for them to attack directly, but they had foreseen a measure of his plans and they struck at what he needed most to realise those plans.'
'The primarchs?'
'The primarchs,' agreed Sejanus, walking back down the length of walkway. Horus heard distant sirens blare and felt the air within the chamber become more agitated, as if a cold electric current whipped from molecule to molecule.
'What's going on?' he asked, as the sirens grew louder.
'Justice,' said Sejanus.
The reflective surfaces of the tanks lit up as an actinic blue light appeared above them, and Horus looked up to see a blob of dirty light swirling into existence just below the ceiling. Like a miniature galaxy, it hung suspended above the silver incubation tanks, growing larger with every passing second. A powerful wind tugged at Horus and he hung onto the railing as a shrieking howl issued from the spreading vortex above him.
'What is that?' he shouted, working his way along the railing towards the stairs. 'You know what it is, Horus,' said Sejanus.
'We have to get out of here.'
'It's too late for that,' said Sejanus, taking his arm in an iron grip.
'Take your hand off me, Sejanus,' warned Horus, 'or whatever your name is. I know you're not Sejanus, so you might as well stop pretending.'
Even as he spoke, he saw a group of armoured warriors rushing through the chamber's doorway towards them. There were six of them, each with the build of an Astartes, but without a suit of battle plate, they were less bulked out and gigantic. They wore fabulously ornate gold breastplates decorated with eagles and lightning bolts, and each wore a tall, peaked helm of bronze with a red, horsehair plume. Scarlet cloaks billowed behind them in the cyclone that swept through the chamber. Long spears with boltguns slung beneath long, crackling blades were aimed at him, and he instantly recognised the warriors for what they were - the Custodian Guard, the Praetorians of the Emperor himself.
'Halt, fiends and face thy judgement!' shouted the lead warrior, aiming his guardian spear at Horus's heart. Though the warrior wore an enclosing helm, Horus would have recognised his eyes and that voice anywhere.
'Valdor!' cried Horus. 'Constantin Valdor. It's me, it's Horus.'
'Be silent!' shouted Valdor. 'End this foul conjuration now!'
Horus looked up at the ceiling, feeling the power contained within that swirling maelstrom tugging at him like the call of a long lost friend. He forced its siren song from his mind, dropped to the floor of the chamber and took a step forward.
Popping blasts of light erupted from the Custodians' spears, and Horus was forced to his knees by the hammering impacts of their shells. The howling gale swallowed the noise of the shots, and Horus cried out, not with pain, but with the knowledge that fellow warriors of the Imperium had fired upon him.
More blasts struck him, tearing great chunks from his armour, but none was able to defeat its protection. The Custodians advanced in disciplined ranks, pouring their fire into him and keeping him pinned beneath its weight. Sejanus ducked behind the stairs, sparks and smoking chunks ripping from the metal as the explosive bolts tore through it.
Horus roared in anger and surged to his feet, all thoughts of restraint forgotten as he found himself at the centre of the deafening storm. A bolt clipped his gorget and almost spun him around, but it was not enough to stop him. He ripped the guardian spear from the nearest Custodian and smashed his skull to splinters with a single blow from his fist.
He reversed his grip on the spear and slashed the next Custodian from collarbone to groin, the two shorn halves swept up by the howling winds and vanishing into the crackling vortex. Another Custodian died as Horus rammed the spear through his chest and split him in two.
A blade lanced for his head, but he shattered it with a swipe of his fist and ripped the arm from his attacker with casual ease. Another Custodian died as Horus tore his head off in his mighty fist, blood gushing from the neck, as if from a geyser, as he tossed the severed head aside.
Only Valdor remained, and Horus snarled as he rounded on the Chief Custodian. A blaze of light erupted from the barrel of Valdor's guardian spear. Horus grunted at the impacts and raised his fist to strike Valdor down, hearing metal squeal and tear as the force of the hurricane reaching from the vortex above finally achieved its goal.
Horus paused in his attack, suddenly terrified for the fate of those inside the tanks. He turned and saw one tank spewing gasses and screams as it was ripped from the ground, following others as they were torn from their moorings and swept upwards.
Then time stopped and a blinding light filled the chamber.
Horus felt warm honey flow through him, and he turned towards the source of the light: a shimmering golden giant of unimaginable majesty and beauty.
Horus dropped to his knees in rapture at the sight. Who would not strive to worship so perfect a being? Power and certainty flowed from the figure, the secret mystery of creation at his fingertips, the answers to any question that could be asked there for the knowing, and the wisdom to know how to use them.
He wore armour that gleamed a perfect gold, his features impossible to know, and his glory and power unmatched by any being in creation.
The golden warrior moved as though in slow motion, raising his hand to halt the madness of the vortex with a gesture. The maelstrom was silenced, the tumbling incubation tanks suspended in mid air.
The golden figure turned a puzzled gaze upon Horus.
'I know you?' he said, and Horus wept to hear such a perfect symphony of sound.
'Yes,' said Horus, unable to raise his voice above a whisper.
The giant cocked his head to one side and said, 'You would destroy my great works, but you will not succeed. I beg you, turn from this path or all will be lost.'
Horus reached out towards the golden warrior as he turned his sad gaze to the incubation tanks held motionless above him, weighing the consequences of future events in the blink of an eye.
Horus could see the decision in the figure's wondrous eyes and shouted, 'No!'
The figure turned from him and time snapped back into its prescribed stream.
The deafening howl of the warp-spawned wind returned with the force of a hurricane and Horus heard the screams of his brothers amid the metallic clanging of their incubation tanks.
'Father, no!' he yelled. 'You can't let this happen!'
The golden giant was walking away, leaving the carnage in his wake, uncaring of the lives he had wrought. Horus felt his hate swell bright and strong within his breast.
The power of the wind seized him in its grip and he let it take him, spinning him up into the air and Horus opened his arms as he was reunited once again with his brothers.
The abyss of the warp vortex yawned above him like a great eye of terror and madness.
He surrendered to its power and let it take him into its embrace.
SIXTEEN
The truth is all we have
Arch prophet
Home
FOR ONCE LOKEN was inclined to agree with Iacton Qruze when he said, 'Not like it used to be, boy. Not like it used to be.'
They stood on the strategium deck, looking out over the ghostly glow of Davin as it hung in space like a faded jewel. 'I remember the first time we came here, seems like yesterday.'
'More like a lifetime,' said Loken.
'Nonsense, young man,' said Qruze. 'When you've been around as long as I have you learn a thing or two. Live to my age and we'll see how you perceive the passage of years.'
Loken sighed, not in the mood for another of Qruze's rambling, faintly patronising stories of 'the good old days'.
'Yes, Iacton, we'll see.'
'Don't dismiss me, boy,' said Qruze. 'I may be old, but I'm not stupid.'
'I never meant to say you were,' said Loken.
'Then take heed of me now, Garviel,' said Qruze, leaning in close. 'You think I don't know, but I do.'
'Don't know about what?'
'About the "half-heard" thing,' hissed Qruze, quietly so that none of the deck crew could hear. 'I know fine well why |
ed, not in the mood for another of Qruze's rambling, faintly patronising stories of 'the good old days'.
'Yes, Iacton, we'll see.'
'Don't dismiss me, boy,' said Qruze. 'I may be old, but I'm not stupid.'
'I never meant to say you were,' said Loken.
'Then take heed of me now, Garviel,' said Qruze, leaning in close. 'You think I don't know, but I do.'
'Don't know about what?'
'About the "half-heard" thing,' hissed Qruze, quietly so that none of the deck crew could hear. 'I know fine well why you call me that, and it's not because I speak softly, it's because no one pays a blind bit of notice to what I say.'
Loken looked into Qruze's long, tanned face, his skin deeply lined with creases and folds. His eyes, normally hooded and half-closed were now intense and penetrating.
'Iacton-' began Loken, but Qruze cut him off.
'Don't apologise, it doesn't become you.'
'I don't know what to say,' said Loken.
'Ach... don't say anything. What do I have to say that anyone would want to listen to anyway?' sighed Qruze. 'I know what I am, boy, a relic of a time long passed for our beloved Legion. You know that I remember when we fought without the Warmaster, can you imagine such a thing?'
'We may not have to soon, Iacton. It's nearly time for the Delphos to open and there's been no word. Apothecary Vaddon is no nearer to finding out what happened to the Warmaster, even with the anathame.'
'The what?'
'The weapon that wounded the Warmaster,' said Loken, wishing he hadn't mentioned the kinebrach weapon in front of Qruze.
'Oh, must be a powerful weapon that,' said Qruze sagely.
'I wanted to go back down to Davin with Torgaddon,' said Loken, changing the subject, 'but I was afraid of what I might do if I saw Little Horus or Ezekyle.'
'They are your brothers, boy,' said Qruze. 'Whatever happens, never forget that. We break such bonds at our peril. When we turn from one brother, we turn from them all.'
'Even when they have made a terrible mistake?'
'Even then,' agreed Qruze. 'We all make mistakes, lad. We need to appreciate them for what they are - lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, of course, but at least someone else can learn from that.'
'I don't know what to do,' said Loken, leaning on the strategium rail. 'I don't know what's happening with the Warmaster and there's nothing I can do about it.'
'Aye, it's a thorny one, my boy,' agreed Qruze. 'Still, as we used to say back in my day, "When there's nothing you can do about it, don't worry about it".'
'Things must have been simpler back in your day, Iacton,' said Loken.
'They were, boy, that's for sure,' replied Qruze, missing Loken's sarcasm. 'There was none of this quiet order nonsense, and do you think we'd have that upstart Varvarus baying for blood back in the day? Or that we'd have had remembrancers on our own bloody ship, writing treasonous poetry about us and claiming that it's the unvarnished truth? I ask you, where's the damn respect the Astartes used to be held in? Changed days, young man, changed days.'
Loken's eyes narrowed as Qruze spoke. 'What are you talking about?'
'I said it's changed days since-'
'No,' said Loken, 'about Varvarus and the remembrancers.'
'Haven't you heard? No, I suppose you haven't,' said Qruze. 'Well, it seems Varvarus wasn't too pleased about you and the Mournival's return to the Vengeful Spirit with the Warmaster. The fool thinks heads should roll for the deaths you caused. He's been on the vox daily to Maloghurst demanding we tell the fleet what happened, make reparations to the families of the dead, and then punish you all.'
'Punish us?'
'That's what he's saying,' nodded Qruze. 'Claims he's already had Ing Mae Sing despatch communiques back to the Council of Terra about the mess you caused. Bloody nuisance if you ask me. We didn't have to put up with this when we first set out, you fought and bled, and if people got in the way then that was their tough luck.'
Loken was aghast at Qruze's words, once again feeling the shame of his actions on the embarkation deck. The innocent deaths he'd been part of would remain with him until his dying day, but what was done was done and he wouldn't waste time on regret. For mere mortals to decree the death of an Astartes was unthinkable, however unfortunate the events had been.
As troublesome a problem as Varvarus was, he was a problem for Maloghurst to deal with, but something in Qruze's words struck a familiar chord.
'You said something about remembrancers?'
'Yes, as if we didn't have enough to worry about.'
'Iacton, don't draw this out. Tell me what's going on.'
'Very well, though I don't know what your hurry is,' replied Qruze. 'It seems there's some anonymous remembrancer going about the ship, dishing out anti-Astartes propaganda, poetry or some such drivel. Crewmen have been finding pamphlets all over the ship. Called the "truth is all we have" or something pretentious like that.'
'The truth is all we have,' repeated Loken.
'Yes, I think so.'
Loken spun on his heel and made his way from the strategium without another word.
'Not like it was, back in my day,' sighed Qruze after Loken's departing back.
IT WAS LATE and he was tired, but Ignace Karkasy was pleased with the last week's work. Each time he'd made a clandestine journey through the ship distributing his radical poetry, he'd returned hours later to find every copy gone. Though the ship's crew was no doubt confiscating some, he knew that others must have found their way into the hands of those who needed to hear what he had to say.
The companionway was quiet, but then it always was these days. Most of those who held vigils for the fallen Warmaster did so either on Davin or in the larger spaces of the ship. An air of neglect hung over the Vengeful Spirit, as though even the servitors who cleaned and maintained it had paused in their duties to await the outcome of events on the planet below.
As he walked back to his billet, Karkasy saw the symbol of the Lectitio Divinitatus scratched into bulkheads and passageways time and time again, and he had the distinct impression that if he were to follow them, they would lead him to a group of the faithful.
The faithful: it still sounded strange to think of such a term in these enlightened times. He remembered standing in the fane on Sixty-Three Nineteen and wondering if belief in the divine was some immutable flaw in the character of mankind. Did man need to believe in something to fill some terrible emptiness within him?
A wise man of Old Earth had once claimed that science would destroy mankind, not through its weapons of mass destruction, but through finally proving that there was no god. Such knowledge, he claimed, would sear the mind of man and leave him gibbering and insane with the realisation that he was utterly alone in an uncaring universe.
Karkasy smiled and wondered what that old man would have said if he could see the truth of the Imperium taking its secular light to the far corners of the galaxy. On the other hand, perhaps this Lectitio Divinitatus cult was vindication of his words: proof that, in the face of that emptiness, man had chosen to invent new gods to replace the ones that had passed out of memory.
Karkasy wasn't aware of the Emperor having transubstantiated from man to god, but the cult's literature, which was appearing with the same regularity as his own publications, claimed that he had already risen beyond mortal concerns.
He shook his head at such foolishness, already working out how to incorporate this weighty pontificating into his new poems. His billet was just ahead, and as he reached towards the recessed handle, he immediately knew that something was wrong.
The door was slightly ajar and the reek of ammonia filled the corridor, but even over that powerful smell, Karkasy detected a familiar, pervasive aroma that could mean only one thing. The impertinent ditty he had composed for Euphrati Keeler concerning the stink of the Astartes leapt to mind, and he knew who would be behind the door, even before he opened it.
He briefly considered simply walking away, but realised that there would be no point.
He took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
Inside, his cabin was a mess, though it was a mess of his own making rather than that of any intruder. Standing with his back to him and seeming to fill the small space with his bulk was, as he'd expected, Captain Loken.
'Hello, Ignace,' said Loken, putting down one of the Bondsman number 7's. Karkasy had filled two of them with random jottings and thoughts, and he knew that Loken wouldn't be best pleased with what he must have read. You didn't need to be a student of literature to understand the vitriol written there.
'Captain Loken,' replied Karkasy. 'I'd ask to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, but we both know why you're here, don't we?'
Loken nodded, and Karkasy, feeling his heart pounding in his chest, saw that the Astartes was holding his anger in check by the finest of threads. This was not the raging fury of Abaddon, but a cold steel rage that could destroy him without a moment's pause or regret. Suddenly Karkasy realised how dangerous his newly rediscovered muse was and how foolish he'd been in thinking he would remain undiscovered for long. Strangely, now that he was unmasked, he felt his defiance smother the fire of his fear, and knew that he had done the right thing.
'Why?' hissed Loken. 'I vouched for you, remembrancer. I put my good name on the line for you and this is how I am repaid?'
'Yes, captain,' said Karkasy. 'You did vouch for me. You made me swear to tell the truth and that is what I have been doing.'
'The truth?' roared Loken, and Karkasy quailed before his anger, remembering how easily the captain's fists had bludgeoned people to death. 'This is not the truth, this is libellous trash! Your lies are already spreading to the rest of the fleet. I should kill you for this, Ignace.'
'Kill me? Just like you kil |
good name on the line for you and this is how I am repaid?'
'Yes, captain,' said Karkasy. 'You did vouch for me. You made me swear to tell the truth and that is what I have been doing.'
'The truth?' roared Loken, and Karkasy quailed before his anger, remembering how easily the captain's fists had bludgeoned people to death. 'This is not the truth, this is libellous trash! Your lies are already spreading to the rest of the fleet. I should kill you for this, Ignace.'
'Kill me? Just like you killed all those innocent people on the embarkation deck?' shouted Karkasy. 'Is that what Astartes justice means now? Someone gets in your way or says something you don't agree with and you kill them? If that's what our glorious Imperium has come to then I want nothing to do with it.'
He saw the anger drain from Loken and felt a momentary pang of sorrow for him, but quashed it as he remembered the blood and screams of the dying. He lifted a collection of poems and held them out to Loken. 'Anyway, this is want you wanted.'
'You think I wanted this?' said Loken, hurting the pamphlets across the billet and looming over him. 'Are you insane?'
'Not at all, my dear captain,' said Karkasy, affecting a calm he didn't feel. 'I have you to thank for this.'
'Me? What are you talking about?' asked Loken, obviously confused. Karkasy could see the chink of doubt in Loken's bluster. He offered the bottle of wine to Loken, but the giant warrior shook his head.
'You told me to keep telling the truth, ugly and unpalatable as it might be,' said Karkasy, pouring some wine into a cracked and dirty tin mug. 'The truth is all we have, remember?'
'I remember,' sighed Loken, sitting down on Karkasy's creaking cot bed.
Karkasy let out a breath as he realised the immediate danger had passed, and took a long, gulping drink of the wine. It was poor a vintage and had been open for too long, but it helped to calm his jangling nerves. He pulled a high backed chair from his writing desk and sat before Loken, who held his hand out for the bottle.
'You're right, Ignace, I did tell you to do this, but I never imagined it would lead us to this place,' said Loken, taking a swig from the bottle.
'Nor I, but it has,' replied Karkasy. 'The question now becomes what are you going to do about it?'
'I don't really know, Ignace,' admitted Loken. 'I think you are being unfair to the Mournival, given the circumstances we found ourselves in. All we-'
'No,' interrupted Karkasy, 'I'm not. You Astartes stand above us mortals in all regards and you demand our respect, but that respect has to be earned. It requires your ethics to be without question. You not only have to stay above the line between right and wrong, you also have to stay well clear of the grey areas in-between.'
Loken laughed humourlessly. 'I thought it was Sindermann's job to be a teacher of ethics.'
'Well, our dear Kyril has not been around much lately, has he?' said Karkasy. 'I admit I'm somewhat of a latecomer to the ranks of the righteous, but I know that what I am doing is right. More than that, I know it's necessary!'
'You feel that strongly about this?'
'I do, captain. More strongly than I have felt about anything in my life.'
'And you'll keep publishing this?' asked Loken, lifting a pile of scribbled notes.
'Is there a right answer to that question, captain?' asked Karkasy.
'Yes, so answer honestly.'
'If I can,' said Karkasy, 'then I will.'
'You will bring trouble down on us both, Ignace Karkasy,' said Loken, 'but if we have no truth, then we are nothing, and if I stop you speaking out then I am no better than a tyrant.'
'So you're not going to stop me writing, or send me back to Terra?'
'I should, but I won't. You should be aware that your poems have made you powerful enemies, Ignace, enemies who will demand your dismissal, or worse. As of this moment however, you are under my protection,' said Loken.
'You think I'll need protection?' asked Karkasy. 'Definitely,' said Loken.
'I'M TOLD YOU wanted to see me,' said Euphrati Keeler. 'Care to tell me why?'
'Ah, my dear, Euphrati,' said Kyril Sindermann, looking up from his food. 'Do come in.'
She'd found him in the sub-deck dining area after scouring the dusty passages of Archive Chamber Three for him for over an hour. According to the iterators left on the ship, the old man had been spending almost all of his time there, missing his lectures - not that there were any students to lecture just now - and ignoring the requests of his peers to join them for meals or drinks.
Torgaddon had left her to find Sindermann on her own, his duty discharged simply by bringing her back to the Vengeful Spirit. Then he had gone in search of Captain Loken, to travel back down to Davin with him. Keeler didn't doubt that he'd pass on what he'd seen on the planet to Loken, but she no longer cared who knew of her beliefs. Sindermann looked terrible, his eyes haggard and grey, his features sallow and gaunt. 'You don't look good, Sindermann,' she said. 'I could say the same for you, Euphrati,' said Sindermann. 'You've lost weight. It doesn't suit you.'
'Most women would be grateful for that, but you didn't have one of the Astartes fetch me back here to comment on my eating habits, did you?'
Sindermann laughed, pushing aside the book he'd been poring over, and said, 'No, you're right, I didn't.'
'Then why did you?' she asked, sitting opposite him. 'If it's because of something Ignace has told you, then save your breath.'
'Ignace? No, I haven't spoken to him for some time,' replied Sindermann. 'It was Mersadie Oliton who came to see me. She tells me that you've become quite the agitator for this Lectitio Divinitatus cult.'
'It's not a cult.'
'No? Then what would you call it?' She thought about it for a moment and then answered, 'A new faith.'
'A shrewd answer,' said Sindermann. 'If you'll indulge me, I'd like to know more about it.'
'You would? I thought you'd brought me back to try and teach me the error of my ways, to use your iterator's wiles to try and talk me out of my beliefs.'
'Not at all, my dear,' said Sindermann. 'You may think your tribute is paid in secret in the recesses of your heart, but it will out. We are a curious species when it comes to worship. The things that dominate our imagination determine our lives and our character. Therefore it behoves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.'
'And what do you think we worship?'
Sindermann looked furtively around the sub-deck and produced a sheet of paper that she recognised immediately as one of the Lectitio Divinitatus pamphlets. 'That's what I want you to help me with. I have read this several times and I must admit that I am intrigued by the things it posits. You see, ever since the... events beneath the Whisperheads, I... I haven't been sleeping too well and I thought to bury myself in my books. I thought that if I could understand what happened to us, then I could rationalise it.'
'And did you?'
He smiled, but she could see the weariness and despair behind the gesture. 'Honestly? No, not really, the more I read, the more I saw how far we'd come since the days of religious hectoring from an autocratic priesthood. By the same token, the more I read the more I realised there was a pattern emerging.'
'A pattern? What kind of pattern?'
'Look,' said Sindermann, coming round the table to sit next to her, and flattening out the pamphlet before her. 'Your Lectitio Divinitatus talks about how the Emperor has moved amongst us for thousands of year, yes?'
'Yes.'
'Well in the old texts, rubbish mostly - ancient histories and lurid tales of barbarism and bloodshed - I found some recurring themes. A being of golden light appears in several of the texts and, much as I hate to admit it, it sounds a lot like what this paper describes. I don't know what truth may lie in this avenue of investigation, but I would know more of it, Euphrati.' She didn't know what to say.
'Look,' he said, pulling the book around and turning it towards her. 'This book is written in a derivation of an ancient human language, but one I haven't seen before. I can make out certain passages, I think, but it's a very complex structure and without some of the root words to make the right grammatical connections, it's proving very difficult to translate.'
'What book is it?'
'I believe it to be the Book of Lorgar, although I haven't been able to speak with First Chaplain Erebus to verify that fact. If it is, it may be a copy given to the Warmaster by Lorgar himself.'
'So why does that make it so important?'
'Don't you remember the rumours about Lorgar?' asked Sindermann urgently. 'That he too worshipped the Emperor as a god? It's said that his Legion devastated world after world for not showing the proper devotion to the Emperor, and then raised up great monuments to him.'
'I remember the tales, yes, but that's all they are, surely?'
'Probably, but what if they aren't?' said Sindermann, his eyes alight with the possibility of uncovering such knowledge. 'What if a primarch, one of the Emperor's sons no less, was privy to something we as mere mortals are not yet ready for? If my work so far is correct, then this book talks about bringing forth the essence of god. I must know what that means!'
Despite herself, Euphrati felt her pulse race with this potential knowledge. Undeniable proof of the Emperor's divinity coming from Kyril Sindermann would raise the Lectitio Divinitatus far above its humble status and into the realm of a phenomenon that could spread from one side of the galaxy to the other.
Sindermann saw that realisation in her face and said, 'Miss Keeler, I have spent my entire adult life promulgating the truth of the Imperium and I am proud of the work I have done, but what if we are teaching the wrong message? If you are right and the Emperor is a god, then what we saw beneath the mountains of Sixty-Three Nineteen represents a danger more horrifying than we can poss |
its humble status and into the realm of a phenomenon that could spread from one side of the galaxy to the other.
Sindermann saw that realisation in her face and said, 'Miss Keeler, I have spent my entire adult life promulgating the truth of the Imperium and I am proud of the work I have done, but what if we are teaching the wrong message? If you are right and the Emperor is a god, then what we saw beneath the mountains of Sixty-Three Nineteen represents a danger more horrifying than we can possibly imagine. If it truly was a spirit of evil then we need a divine being such as the Emperor, more than ever. I know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude - we've proven that time and time again. People are more ready to fight and die for a word than for anything else. Words shape thought, stir feeling, and force action. They kill and revive, corrupt and cure. If being an iterator has taught me anything, it's that men of words - priests, prophets and intellectuals - have played a more decisive role in history than any military leaders or statesmen. If we can prove the existence of god, then I promise you the iterators will shout that truth from the highest towers of the land.'
Euphrati stared, open mouthed, as Kyril Sindermann turned her world upside down: this arch prophet of secular truth speaking of gods and faith? Looking into his eyes, she saw the wracking self-doubt and crisis of identity that he had undergone since she had last seen him, understanding how much of him had been lost these last few days, and how much had been gained.
'Let me see,' she said, and Sindermann pushed the book in front of her.
The writing was an angular cuneiform, running up and down the page rather than along it, and right away she could see that she would be no help in its translation, although elements of the script looked somehow familiar.
'I can't read it,' she said. 'What does it say?'
'Well, that's the problem, I can't tell exactly,' said Sindermann. 'I can make out the odd word, but it's difficult without the grammatical key.'
'I've seen this before,' she said, suddenly remembering why the writing looked familiar.
'I hardly think so, Euphrati,' said Sindermann. 'This book has been in the archive chamber for decades. I don't think anyone's read it since it was put there.'
'Don't patronise me, Sindermann, I've definitely seen this before,' she insisted.
'Where?'
Keeler reached into her pocket and gripped the memory coil of her smashed picter. She rose from her seat and said, 'Gather your notes and I'll meet you in the archive chamber in thirty minutes.'
'Where are you going?' asked Sindermann, gathering up the book.
'To get something you're going to want to see.'
HORUS OPENED HIS eyes to see a sky thick with polluted clouds, the taste in the air chemical and stagnant.
It smelled familiar. It smelled of home.
He lay on an uneven plateau of dusty black powder in front of a long-exhausted mining tunnel, and felt the hollow ache of homesickness as he realized this was Cthonia.
The smog of the distant foundries and the relentless hammering of deep core mining filled the sky with particulate matter, and he felt an ache of loneliness for the simpler times he had spent here.
Horus looked around for Sejanus, but whatever the swirling vortex beneath Terra had been, it had evidently not swept up his old comrade in its fury.
His journey here had not been as silent and instant as his previous journeys through this strange and unknown realm. The powers that dwelled in the warp had shown him a glimpse of the future, and it was a desolate place indeed. Foul xeno breeds held sway over huge swathes of the galaxy and a pall of hopelessness gripped the sons of man.
The power of humanity's glorious armies was broken, the Legions shattered and reduced to fragments of what they had once been: bureaucrats, scriveners and officialdom ruling in a hellish regime where men lived inglorious lives of no consequence or ambition.
In this dark future, mankind had not the strength to challenge the overlords, to fight against the terrors the Emperor had left them to. His father had become a carrion god who neither felt his subjects' pain nor cared for their fate.
In truth, the solitude of Cthonia was welcome, his thoughts tumbling through his head in a mad whirl of anger and resentment. The Emperor tinkered with powers far beyond his means to master - and had already failed to control once before. He had bargained away his sons for the promise of power, and now returned to Terra to try once again.
'I will not let this happen,' Horus said quietly.
As he spoke, he heard the plaintive howl of a wolf and pushed himself to his feet. Nothing like a wolf lived on Cthonia, and Horus was sick of this constant pursuit through the warp.
'Show yourselves!' he shouted, punching the air and bellowing an ululating war cry.
His cry was answered as the howling came again, drawing nearer, and Horus felt his battle lust swim to the surface. He had the taste of blood after the slaughter of the Custodian Guards and welcomed the chance to spill yet more.
Shadows moved around him and he shouted, 'Lupercal! Lupercal!'
Shapes resolved from the shadows and he saw a red-furred wolf pack detach from the darkness. They surrounded him, and Horus recognized the pack leader as the beast that had spoken to him when he had first awoken in the warp.
'What are you?' asked Horus, 'and no lies.'
'A friend,' said the wolf, its form blurring and running with rippling lines of golden light. The wolf reared up on its hind legs, its form elongating and widening as it became more humanoid, its proportions swelling and changing until it stood as tall as Horus himself.
Copper skin replaced fur and its eyes ran like liquid as they formed one, golden orb. Thick red hair sprouted from the figure's head and bronze coloured armour shimmered into existence upon his breast and arms. He wore a billowing cloak of feathers and Horus knew him as well he knew his own reflection.
'Magnus,' said Horus. 'Is it really you?'
'Yes, my brother, it is,' said Magnus, and the two warriors embraced in a clatter of plate.
'How?' asked Horus. 'Are you dying too?'
'No,' said Magnus. 'I am not. You must listen to me, my brother. It has taken me too long to reach you, and I do not have much time here. The spells and wards placed around you are powerful and every second I am here a dozen of my thralls die to keep them open.'
'Don't listen to him, Warmaster,' said another voice, and Horus turned to see Hastur Sejanus emerge from the darkness of the mining tunnel. 'This is who we have been trying to avoid. It is a shape-changing creature of the warp that feasts on human souls. It seeks to devour yours so that you cannot return to your body. All that was Horus would be no more.'
'He lies,' spat Magnus. 'You know me, Horus. I am your brother, but who is he? Hastur? Hastur is dead.'
'I know, but here, in this place, death is not the end.'
'There is truth in that,' agreed Magnus, 'but you would place your trust in the dead over your own brother? We mourn Hastur, but he is gone from us. This impostor does not even wear his own true face!'
Magnus thrust his fist forward and closed his fingers on the air, as though gripping something invisible. Then he wrenched his hand back. Hastur screamed and a silver light blazed like a magnesium flare from his eyes.
Horus squinted through the blinding light, still seeing an Astartes warrior, but one now armoured in the livery of the Word Bearers.
'Erebus?' asked Horus.
'Yes, Warmaster,' agreed First Chaplain Erebus; the long red scar across his throat had already begun to heal. 'I came to you in the guise of Sejanus to ease your understanding of what must be done, but I have spoken nothing but the truth since we traveled this realm.'
'Do not listen to him, Horus,' warned Magnus. 'The future of the galaxy is in your hands.'
'Indeed it is,' said Erebus, 'for the Emperor will abandon the galaxy in his quest for apotheosis. Horus must save the Imperium, for it is evident that the Emperor will not.'
SEVENTEEN
Horror
Angels and daemons
Blood pact
WITH THE COMPACT edit engine tucked under one arm and a sense of limitless possibilities filling her heart, Euphrati Keeler made her way through the stacks of Archive Chamber Three towards Sindermann's table. The white haired iterator sat hunched over the book he had shown her earlier, his breath misting in the chill air. She sat down beside him and placed the edit engine on the desk, slotting a memory coil into the imager slot.
'It's cold in here, Sindermann,' she said. 'How you haven't caught a fever I'll never know.'
He nodded. 'Yes, it is rather cold, isn't it. It's been like this for days now, ever since the Warmaster was taken to Davin in fact.'
The screen of the edit engine flickered to life, its white screen bathing them both in its washed-out light as Keeler flicked through the images she had captured. She zipped through those she had taken while on Davin's surface and those of Captain Loken and the Mournival prior to their departure for the Whisperheads.
'What are you looking for exactly?' asked Sindermann.
'This,' she said triumphantly, angling the screen so he could see the image it displayed.
The file contained eight pictures, all taken at the war council held on Davin where Eugan Temba's treachery had been revealed. Each shot included First Chaplain Erebus, and she used the engine's trackball to zoom in on his tattooed skull. Sindermann gasped as he recognized the symbols on Erebus's head. They were identical to the ones in the book that he had shown Keeler on the sub-deck.
'That's it then,' he breathed. 'It must be the Book of Lorgar. Can you get any closer to get the symbols from all sides of Erebus's head? Is that possible?'
'Please, it's me,' she replied, her hands dancing across the keys of the edit engine.
Using all the various images, and shots of the Word Bearer fro |
ckball to zoom in on his tattooed skull. Sindermann gasped as he recognized the symbols on Erebus's head. They were identical to the ones in the book that he had shown Keeler on the sub-deck.
'That's it then,' he breathed. 'It must be the Book of Lorgar. Can you get any closer to get the symbols from all sides of Erebus's head? Is that possible?'
'Please, it's me,' she replied, her hands dancing across the keys of the edit engine.
Using all the various images, and shots of the Word Bearer from different angles, Euphrati was able to create a composite image of the symbols tattooed onto his skull and project it onto a flat pane. Sindermann watched her skill with admiration, and it took her less than ten minutes to resolve a high-gain image of the symbols on Erebus's head.
With a grunt of satisfaction, she made a final keystroke, and a glossy hard copy of the screen's image slid from the side of the machine with a whirring sigh. Keeler lifted it by the corners and waved it for a second or two to dry it, before handing it to Sindermann.
'There,' she said. 'Does that help you translate what this book says?'
Sindermann slid the image across the table and held it close to the book, his head bobbing back and forth between the book and his notes as his finger traced down the trails of cuneiforms.
'Yes, yes...' he said excitedly. 'Here, you see, this word is laden with vowel transliterations and this one is clearly a personal argot, though of a much denser polysyllabic construction.'
Keeler tuned out of what Sindermann was saying after a while, unable to make sense of the jargon he was using. Karkasy or Oliton might be able to understand the iterator, but images were her thing, not words.
'How long will it take you to get any sense out of it?' she asked.
'What? Oh, not long I shouldn't wonder,' he said. 'Once you know the grammatical logic of a language, it is a relatively simple matter to unlock the rest of its meaning.'
'So how long?'
'Give me an hour and we'll read this together, yes?'
She nodded and pushed her chair back, saying, 'Fine, I'll take a look around if that's alright.'
'Yes, feel free to have a look at whatever catches your eye, my dear, though I fear much of this collection is more suited to dusty academics like myself.'
Keeler smiled as she got up from the table. 'I may not be a documentarist, but I know which end of a book to read, Kyril.'
'Of course you do, I didn't mean to suggest-'
'Too easy,' she said and wandered off into the stacks to browse while Sindermann returned to his books.
Despite her quip, she soon realized that Sindermann was exactly right. She spent the next hour wandering up and down shelves packed with scrolls, books and musty, loose-leaf manuscripts. Most of the books had unfathomable titles like Reading Astrologies and Astrotelepathic Auguries, Malefic Abjurations and the Multifarious Horrores Associated Wyth Such Workes or The Book of Atum.
As she passed this last book, she felt a shiver travel the length her spine and reached up to slide the book from the shelf. The smell of its worn leather binding was strong, and though she had no real wish to read the book, she couldn't deny the strange attraction it held for her.
The book creaked open in her grip, and the dust of centuries wafted from its pages as she opened them. She coughed, hearing Sindermann reading aloud from the Book of Lorgar as he translated more of the text.
Surprisingly, the words before her were written in a language she could understand, and her eyes quickly scanned the page. Sindermann's words came again, and it took Euphrati a moment to register that the words she was hearing echoed the words she was seeing on the page, the letters blurring and rearranging themselves before her very eyes. The faded script seemed to illuminate from within, and as she read what they said, the book's pages burst into flames. She dropped the book with a cry of alarm.
She turned and ran back towards where she had left Sindermann, turning the corner to see him reading aloud from the book with a terrified expression on his face. He gripped the edges of the book as though unable to let go, the words pouring from him in a flood of voices.
A crackling, electric sensation set Euphrati's teeth on edge and she cried out in terror as she saw a swirling cloud of bluish light hovering above the desk. The image twisted and jerked in the air, moving as though out of sync with the world around it.
'Kyril! What's happening?' she screamed as the terror of the Whisperheads returned to her with paralyzing force and she dropped to her knees. Sindermann didn't answer, the words streaming from his unwilling mouth and his eyes fixed in terror on the unnatural sight above him. She could tell the same fear that she felt was also running hot in his veins.
The light bulged and stretched as though something was pushing through from beyond, and an iridescent, questing limb oozed from its depths. Keeler felt the anger that had consumed her in the months following her attack break through the fear and she surged to her feet.
Keeler ran towards Sindermann and gripped his skinny wrists, as the suggestion of a rippling body of undulating, glowing flesh began tearing through the light.
His hands were locked on the book, the knuckles white, and she couldn't prise them loose as he continued to give voice to the terrible words within its pages.
'Kyril! Let go of the damn book!' she cried as an awful ripping sound came from above. She risked a look upwards, and saw yet more tentacled limbs pushing through the light in an obscene parody of birth.
'I'm sorry Kyril!' she shouted and punched the iterator across the jaw. He pitched backwards out of his chair, and the torrent of words was cut off as the book fell from his hands. She quickly circled the table and lifted Sindermann to his feet. As she did so, she heard a grotesque sucking sound and a hard, wet thud of something heavy landing on the table.
Euphrati didn't waste time looking back, but took off as fast as she could towards the stacks, supporting the lurching Sindermann as she went. The pair of them staggered away from the table as a glittering light behind them threw their shadows out before them, and a cackling shriek like laughter washed over them.
Keeler heard a whoosh of air and something bright and hot flashed past her, exploding against the shelves with a hot bang like a firework. The wood hissed and spat where it had been struck, and she looked over her shoulder to see a horror of flailing limbs and glowing, twisting flesh leap after them. It moved with a rippling motion, lunatic faces, eyes and cackling mouths forming and reforming from the liquid matter of its body. Blue and red light flared from within it, strobing in dazzling beams through the archive.
Another bolt of phosphorescent brightness streaked towards them, and Keeler threw herself and Sindermann flat as it blasted the shelf beside them, sending flaming books and splintered chunks of wood flying. The horrifying monster loped through the stacks on long, elastic limbs, its speed and agility incredible, and Keeler could see that it was circling around to get behind them.
She dragged Sindermann to his feet as she heard the monster's maddening laughter cackling behind her. The iterator seemed to have regained some measure of his senses after her punch, and once again, they ran between the twisting, narrow rows of shelves towards the chamber's exit. Behind her, she could hear the whoosh of flames as the horror squeezed its body into the row and books erupted into geysers of pink fire.
The end of the row was just ahead of her and she almost laughed as she heard the claxons that warned of a fire screech in alarm. Surely, someone would come to help them now?
They burst from the end of the row and Sindermann stumbled, again carrying her to the floor with him. They fell in a tangle of limbs, scrambling desperately to put some distance between them and the loathsome monster.
Keeler rolled onto her back as it pushed itself from the row of shelves, its rippling bulk undulating with rolling internal motion. Leering eyes and wide, fang-filled mouths erupted across its amorphous body, and she screamed as it vomited a breath of searing blue fire towards her.
Though she knew it would do no good, she closed her eyes and threw her arms up to ward off the flames, but a sudden silence enveloped her and the expected burning agony never hit.
'Hurry!' said a trembling voice. 'I cannot hold it much longer.'
Keeler turned and saw the white robed form of the Vengeful Spirit's Mistress of Astropaths, Ing Mae Sing, standing in the archive chamber's doorway with her hands outstretched before her.
'HORUS, MY BROTHER,' said Magnus. 'You must not believe whatever he has told you. It is lies, all of it. Lies that disguise his sinister purpose.'
'Those with courage and character to speak the truth always seem sinister to the ignorant,' snarled Erebus. 'You dare speak of lies while you stand before us in the warp? How can this be without the use of sorcery? Sorcery you were expressly forbidden to practice by the Emperor himself.'
'Do not presume to judge me, whelp!' shouted Magnus, hurling a glittering ball of fire towards the first chaplain. Horus watched as the flame streaked towards Erebus and enveloped him, but as the fire died, he saw that Erebus was unharmed, his armour not so much as scratched, and his skin unblemished.
Erebus laughed. 'You are too far away, Magnus. Your powers cannot reach me here.'
Horus watched as Magnus hurled bolt after bolt of lightning from his fingertips, amazed and horrified to see his brother employing such powers. Though all the Legions had once had Librarius divisions that trained warriors to tap into the power of the warp, they had been disbanded after the Emperor's decree at the Council of Nikaea.
Clearly, Magnus had paid that order no mind, and such conceit staggered Horus.
Eventually his cyclopean |
re too far away, Magnus. Your powers cannot reach me here.'
Horus watched as Magnus hurled bolt after bolt of lightning from his fingertips, amazed and horrified to see his brother employing such powers. Though all the Legions had once had Librarius divisions that trained warriors to tap into the power of the warp, they had been disbanded after the Emperor's decree at the Council of Nikaea.
Clearly, Magnus had paid that order no mind, and such conceit staggered Horus.
Eventually his cyclopean brother recognized that his powers were having no effect on Erebus and he dropped his hands to his side.
'You see,' said Erebus, turning to Horus, 'he cannot be trusted.'
'Nor can you, Erebus,' said Horus. 'You come to me cloaked in the identity of another, you claim my brother Magnus is naught but some warp beast set upon devouring me, and then you speak to him as though he is exactly as he seems. If he is here by sorcery, then how else can you be here?'
Erebus paused, caught in his lie and said, 'You are right, my lord. The sorcery of the Serpent Lodge has sent me to you to help you, and to offer you this chance of life. The serpent priestess had to cut my throat to do it and once I return to the world of flesh I will kill the bitch for that, but know that everything I have shown you is real. You saw it yourself and you know the truth.'
Magnus towered over the figure of Erebus. His crimson mane shook with fury, but Horus saw that he kept tight rein on his anger as he spoke.
'The future is not set, Horus. Erebus may have shown you a future, but that is only one possible future. It is not absolute. Have faith in that.'
'Pah!' sneered Erebus. 'Faith is just another way of not wanting to know what is true.'
'You think I don't know that, Magnus?' snapped Horus. 'I know of the warp and the tricks it can play with the mind. I am not stupid. I knew that this was not Sejanus just as I know that without a context, everything I have seen here is meaningless.'
Horus saw the crestfallen look on Erebus's face and laughed. 'You must take me for a fool, Erebus, if you thought that such simple parlour tricks would bewitch me to your cause.'
'My brother,' smiled Magnus. 'You are a wonder to me.'
'Be quiet,' snarled Horus. 'You are no better than Erebus. You will not manipulate me like this, for I am Horus. I am the Warmaster!'
Horus relished their confusion.
One was his brother, the other a warrior he had counted as a valued counsellor and devoted follower. He had sorely misjudged them both.
'I can trust neither of you,' he said. 'I am Horus and I make my own fate.'
Erebus stepped towards him with his hands outstretched in supplication. 'You should know that I came to you at the behest of my lord and master, Lorgar. He already has knowledge of the Emperor's quest to ascend to godhood, and has sworn himself to the powers of the warp. When the Emperor rejected Lorgar's worship, he found other gods all too willing to accept his devotion. My primarch's power has grown tenfold and it is but a fraction of the power that could be yours were you to pledge yourself to their cause.'
'He lies!' cried Magnus. 'Lorgar is loyal. He would never turn against the Emperor.'
Horus listened to Erebus's words and knew with utter certainty that he spoke the truth.
Lorgar, his most beloved brother had already embraced the power of the warp? Warring emotions vied for supremacy within him, disappointment, anger and, if he was honest, a spark of jealousy that Lorgar should have been chosen first.
If wise Lorgar would choose such powers as patrons, was there not some merit in that?
'Horus,' said Magnus, 'I am running out of time. Please be strong, my brother. Think of what this mongrel dog is asking you to do. He would have you spit on your oaths of loyalty. He is forcing you to betray the Emperor and turn on your brother Astartes! You must trust the Emperor to do what is right.'
'The Emperor plays dice with the fate of the galaxy,' countered Erebus, 'and he throws them where they cannot be seen.'
'Horus, please!' cried Magnus, his voice taking on a ghostly quality as his image began to fade. 'You must not do this or all we have fought for will be cast to ruin forever! You cannot do this terrible thing!'
'Is it so terrible?' asked Erebus. 'It is but a small thing really. Deliver the Emperor to the gods of the warp, and unlimited power can be yours. I told you before that they have no interest in the realms of men, and that promise still holds true. The galaxy will be yours to rule over as the new Master of Mankind.'
'Enough!' roared Horus and the world was silence. 'I have made my choice.'
KEELER HELPED KYRIL Sindermann to his feet, and together they fled through the archive chamber's door. Ing Mae Sing's trembling arms were still outstretched, and Keeler could feel waves of psychic cold radiating from her with the effort of holding the horror within the chamber at bay.
'Close... the... door,' said Ing Mae Sing through gritted teeth. Veins stood out on her neck and forehead, and her porcelain features were lined with pain. Keeler didn't need to be told twice, and she dropped Sindermann to get the door, as Ing Mae Sing backed away with slow, shuffling steps.
'Now!' shouted the astropath, dropping her arms. Keeler hauled on the door as the roaring, seething laughter of the beast swelled once again. Alarm claxons and its shrieks of insanity filled her ears as the door swung shut.
Something heavy impacted on the other side, and she could feel its raw heat through the metal. Ing Mae Sing helped her, but the astropath was too frail to be of much use and Keeler knew they couldn't hold the door for long.
'What did you do?' demanded Ing Mae Sing.
'I don't know,' gasped Keeler. 'The iterator was reading from a book and that... thing just appeared from nowhere. What in the name of the Emperor is it?'
'A beast from beyond the gates of the Empyrean,' said Ing Mae Sing as the door shook with another burning impact. 'I felt the build-up of warp energy and got here as quickly as I could.'
'Shame you weren't quicker, eh?' said Keeler. 'Can you send it back?'
Ing Mae Sing shook her head as a thrashing pseudo-pod of pinkish light flicked through the door and grazed Keeler's arm. Its touch seared through her robes and burned her skin. She screamed, flinching from the door, and gripped her arm in agony. The horror slammed into the door once more, and the impact sent her and the astropath flying.
Blinding light filled the passageway and Keeler shielded her eyes as she felt hands upon her shoulders, seeing that Kyril Sindermann was on his feet once more. He dragged her to her feet and said, 'I think I may have mistranslated part of the book...'
'You think!' snapped Keeler as they backed away from the abomination.
'Or maybe you translated it just perfectly,' said Ing Mae Sing, desperately scrambling away from the archive chamber's door. The beast of light oozed outwards in a slithering loop of limbs, each one thrashing in blind hunger. Multitudinous eyes rippled and popped like swollen boils across its rubbery skin as it came towards them once more.
'Oh Emperor protect us,' whispered Keeler as she turned to run.
The beast shuddered at her words, and Ing Mae Sing tugged on her sleeve, crying, 'Come on. We can't fight it.'
Euphrati Keeler suddenly realised that wasn't true and shrugged off the astropath's grip, reaching beneath her robes to pull out the Imperial eagle she kept on the end of her necklace. Its silver surfaces shone in the creature's dazzling light, brighter than it had any reason to be, and feeling hot in her palm. She smiled beatifically as she understood with complete clarity that everything since the Whisperheads had been preparing her for this moment.
'Euphrati! Come on!' shouted Sindermann in terror.
A whipping limb formed from the horror's body and another gout of blue fire roared towards her. Keeler stood firm before it and held the symbol of her faith out in front of her.
'The Emperor protects!' she screamed as the flames washed over her.
RAIN FELL IN heavy sheets, and Loken could feel a tangible charge to the night air as dark thunderheads pressed down on the tens of thousands of people gathered around the Delphos. Lightning bolts fenced above him, and the sense of anticipation was almost unbearable.
Nine days had passed since the Warmaster had been interred within the Temple of the Serpent Lodge and with each passing day the weather had worsened. Rain fell in an unending downpour that threatened to wash away the makeshift camps of the pilgrims, and booming peals of thunder shook the sky like ringing hammer blows.
The Warmaster had once told Loken that the cosmos was too large and sterile for melodrama, but the skies above Davin seemed determined to prove him wrong.
Torgaddon and Vipus stood with him at the top of the steps and hundreds of the Sons of Horus followed behind the three of them. Company captains, squad leaders, file officers and warriors had come to Davin to witness what would be either their salvation or their undoing. They had marched through the singing crowds, the dirty beige robes of remembrancers mixed in with army uniforms and civilian dress.
'Looks like the entire bloody Expedition's here,' Torgaddon had said as they marched up the steps, trampling trinkets and baubles left as offerings to the Warmaster beneath their armoured boots.
From the top of the processional steps, Loken could see the same group he had faced nine days previously, with the exception of Maloghurst who had returned to the ship some days before. Rain ran down Loken's face as a flash of lightning lit up the surface of the great bronze gateway, making it shine like a great wall of fire. The gathered Astartes warriors stood sentinel before it in the rain: Abaddon, Aximand, Targost, Sedirae, Ekaddon and Kibre.
None of them had abandoned their vigil before the gates of the Delphos, and Loken wondered if they had bothered to eat, |
had faced nine days previously, with the exception of Maloghurst who had returned to the ship some days before. Rain ran down Loken's face as a flash of lightning lit up the surface of the great bronze gateway, making it shine like a great wall of fire. The gathered Astartes warriors stood sentinel before it in the rain: Abaddon, Aximand, Targost, Sedirae, Ekaddon and Kibre.
None of them had abandoned their vigil before the gates of the Delphos, and Loken wondered if they had bothered to eat, drink or sleep since he had last laid eyes upon them.
'What do we do now, Garvi?' asked Vipus.
'We join our brothers and wait.'
'Wait for what?'
'We'll know that when it happens,' said Torgaddon. 'Won't we, Garvi?'
'I certainly hope so, Tarik,' replied Loken. 'Come on.'
The three of them set off towards the gateway, the thunder echoing from the massive structure's sides and the snakes atop each pillar slithering with each flashing bolt of lightning.
Loken watched as his brothers in front of the gate came to stand in line at the edge of the rippling pool of water, the full moon reflected in its black surface. Horus Aximand had once called it an omen. Was it again? Loken didn't know whether to hope that it was or not.
The Sons of Horus followed their captains down the wide processional in their hundreds, and Loken kept a grip on his temper, knowing that if things went ill here, there would almost certainly be bloodshed.
The thought horrified him and he hoped with all his heart that such a tragedy could be averted, but he would be ready if it came to war...
'Are you battle-ready?' hissed Loken to Torgaddon and Vipus on a discrete vox channel. 'Always,' nodded Torgaddon. 'Full load on every man.'
'Yes,' said Vipus. 'You really think...'
'No,' said Loken, 'but be ready in case we need to fight. Keep your humours balanced and it will not come to that.'
'You too, Garvi,' warned Torgaddon.
The long column of Astartes warriors reached the pool, the Warmaster's bearers standing on its opposite side, stoic and unrepentant.
'Loken,' said Serghar Targost. Are you here to fight us?'
'No,' said Loken, seeing that, like them, the others were locked and loaded. 'We've come to see what happens. It's been nine days, Serghar.'
'It has indeed,' nodded Targost.
'Where is Erebus? Have you seen him since you put the Warmaster in this place?'
'No,' growled Abaddon, his long hair unbound and his eyes hostile. 'We have not. What does that have to do with anything?'
'Calm yourself, Ezekyle,' said Torgaddon. 'We're all here for the same thing.'
'Loken,' said Aximand, 'there has been bad blood between us all, but that must end now. For us to turn on one another would dishonour the Warmaster's memory.'
'You speak as though he's already dead, Horus.'
'We will see,' said Aximand. 'This was always a forlorn hope, but it was all we had.'
Loken looked into the haunted eyes of Horus Aximand, seeing the despair and doubt that plagued him, and felt his anger towards his brother diminish.
Would he have acted any differently had he been present when the decision to inter the Warmaster had been taken? Could he in all honesty say that he would not have accepted the decision of his friends and peers if the situation had been reversed? He and Horus Aximand might even now be standing on different sides of the moon-shimmered pool.
'Then let us wait as brothers united in hope,' said Loken, and Aximand smiled gratefully.
The palpable tension lifted from the confrontation and Loken, Torgaddon and Vipus marched around the pool to stand with their brothers before the vast gate.
A dazzling bolt of lightning reflected from the gate as the Mournival stood shoulder to shoulder with one another, and a thunderous boom, that had nothing to do with the storm, split the night.
Loken saw a dark line appear in the centre of the gate as the thunder was suddenly silenced and the lightning stilled in the space of a heartbeat. The sky was mystifyingly calm, as though the storm had blown out and the heavens had paused in their revelries better to witness the unfolding drama on the planet below.
Slowly, the gate began to open.
THE FLAMES BATHED Euphrati Keeler, but they were cold and she felt no pain from them. The silver eagle blazed in her hand, thrust before her like a talisman, and she felt a wondrous energy fill her, rushing through her from the tips of her toes to the shorn ends of her hair.
'The power of the Emperor commands you, abomination!' she yelled, the words unfamiliar, but feeling right.
Ing Mae Sing and Kyril Sindermann watched her in amazement as she took one step, and then another, towards the horror. The monster was transfixed; whether by her courage or her faith, she didn't know, but whatever the reason, she was thankful for it.
Its limbs flailed as though some invisible force attacked it, its screeching laughter turning into the pitiful wails of a child.
'In the name of the Emperor, go back to the warp, you bastard!' said Keeler, her confidence growing as the substance of the monster diminished, skins of light shearing away from its body. The silver eagle grew hotter in her hand and she could feel the skin of her palms blistering under its heat.
Ing Mae Sing joined her, adding her own powers to Keeler's assault on the monster. The air around the astropath grew colder and Keeler moved her hand close to the psyker in the hopes of cooling the blazing eagle.
The monster's internal light was fading and flickering, its nebulous outline spitting embers of light as though it fought to hold onto existence. The light from Keeler's eagle outshone its hellish illumination tenfold and the entire corridor was bleached shadowless with its brilliance.
'Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!' cried Ing Mae Sing. 'It's weakening.'
Keeler tried to answer, but found that she had no voice left. The wondrous energy that had filled her was now streaming from her through the eagle, taking her own strength with it.
She tried to drop the eagle, but it was stuck fast to her hand, the red hot metal fusing itself to her skin.
From behind her, Keeler heard the clatter of armoured ship's crew and their cries of astonishment at the scene before them.
'Please...' she whispered as her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor.
The blazing light faded from her hand and the last things she saw were the disintegrating mass of the horror and Sindermann's rapturous face staring down at her in wonder.
THE ONLY SOUND was that of the gate. Loken's entire existence shrank to the growing darkness between its two halves, as he held his breath and waited to see what might lie beyond. The gates swung fully open and he risked a glance at his fellow Sons of Horus, seeing the same desperate hope in every face.
Not a single sound disturbed the night, and Loken felt melancholy rise in him as he realised that this must simply be the automated opening of the temple doors.
The Warmaster was dead.
A sick dread settled on Loken and his head sank to his chest.
Then he heard the sound of footsteps, and looked up to see the gleam of white and gold plate emerge from the darkness.
Horus strode from the Delphos with his cloak of royal purple billowing behind him and his golden sword held high above him.
The eye in the centre of his breastplate blazed a fiery red and the laurels at his forehead framed features that were beautiful and terrible in their magnificence.
The Warmaster stood before them, unbowed and more vital than ever, the sheer physicality of his presence robbing every one of them of speech.
Horus smiled and said, 'You are a sight for sore eyes, my sons.'
Torgaddon punched the air in elation and shouted, 'Lupercal!'
He laughed and ran towards the Warmaster, breaking the spell that had fallen on the rest of them.
The Mournival rushed to this reunion with their lord and master, joyous cries of 'Lupercal!' erupting from the throat of every Astartes warrior as word spread back through the files and into the crowd surrounding the temple.
The pilgrims around the Delphos took up the chant and ten thousand throats were soon crying the Warmaster's name.
'Lupercal! Lupercal! Lupercal!'
The walls of the crater shook to deafening cheers that went on long into the night.
PART FOUR
CRUSADE'S END
EIGHTEEN
Brothers
Assassination
This turbulent poet
SILVER TRAILS OF molten metal had solidified on the breastplate and Mersadie Oliton had learned enough in her time with the Expedition fleet to know that it would require the aid of Legion artificers to repair it properly. Loken sat before her in the training halls, while other officers of the Sons of Horus were scattered throughout it, repairing armour and cleaning bolters or chainswords. Loken was melancholic, and she was quick to notice his somber mood.
'Is the war not going well?' she asked as he removed the firing chamber from his bolter and pulled a cleaning rag through it. He looked up and she was struck by how much he had aged in the last ten months, thinking that she would need to revise her chapter on the immortality of the Astartes.
Since opening hostilities against the Auretian Technocracy, the Astartes had seen some of the hardest fighting since the Great Crusade had begun, and it was beginning to tell on many of them. There had been few opportunities to spend time with Loken during the war, and it was only now that she truly appreciated how much he had changed.
'It's not that,' said Loken. 'The Brotherhood is virtually destroyed and the warriors of Angron will soon storm the Iron Citadel. The war will be over within the week.'
'Then why so gloomy?'
Loken glanced around to see who else was in the training halls and leaned in close to her.
'Because this is a war we should not be fighting.'
UPON HORUS'S RECOVERY on Davin, the fleet of the 63rd Expedition had paused just long enough to recover its personnel from the planet's surface and install a new Imperial commander from the ranks of the Army. Like Rak |
ally destroyed and the warriors of Angron will soon storm the Iron Citadel. The war will be over within the week.'
'Then why so gloomy?'
Loken glanced around to see who else was in the training halls and leaned in close to her.
'Because this is a war we should not be fighting.'
UPON HORUS'S RECOVERY on Davin, the fleet of the 63rd Expedition had paused just long enough to recover its personnel from the planet's surface and install a new Imperial commander from the ranks of the Army. Like Rakris before him, the new Lord Governor Elect, Tomaz Vesalias, had begged not to be left behind, but with Davin once again compliant, Imperial rule had to be maintained.
Before the fighting on Davin, the Warmaster's fleet had been en route to Sardis and a rendezvous with the 203rd Fleet. The plan was to undertake a campaign of compliance in the Caiades Cluster, but instead of keeping that rendezvous, the Warmaster had sent his compliments and ordered the 203rd's Master of Ships to muster with the 63rd Expedition in a binary cluster designated Drakonis Three Eleven.
The Warmaster told no one why he chose this locale, and none of the stellar cartographers could find reports from any previous expedition as to why the place might be of interest.
Sixteen weeks of warp travel had seen them translate into a system alive with electronic chatter. Two planets and their shared moon in the second system were discovered to be inhabited, glinting communications satellites ringing each one, and interplanetary craft flitting between them.
More thrilling still, communications with orbital monitors revealed this civilization to be human, another lost branch of the old race - isolated these past centuries. The arrival of the Crusade fleet had been greeted with understandable surprise, and then joy as the planet's inhabitants realized that their lonely existence was finally at an end.
Formal, face-to-face contact was not established for three days, in which time the 203rd Expedition under the command of Angron of the XII Legion, the World Eaters, translated in-system.
The first shots were fired six hours later.
THE NINTH MONTH of the war.
Bolter shells stitched a path towards Loken from the blazing muzzle of the bunker's gun. He ducked behind a shell-pocked cement column, feeling the impacts hammering through it and knowing that he didn't have much time until the gunfire chewed its way through.
'Garvi!' shouted Torgaddon, rolling from behind cover and shouldering his bolter. 'Go left, I've got you!'
Loken nodded and dived from behind the cover as Torgaddon opened up, his Astartes strength keeping the barrel level despite the bolter's fearsome recoil. Shells exploded in grey puffs of rockcrete at the bunker's firing slit and Loken heard screams of pain from within. Locasta moved up behind him and he heard the whoosh of flame units as warriors poured fire into the bunker.
More screams and the stink of flesh burned by chemical flame filled the air.
'Everyone back!' shouted Loken, getting to his feet and knowing what would come next.
Sure enough, the bunker mushroomed upwards with a thudding boom, its internal magazine cooking off as its internal sensors registered that its occupants were dead.
Heavy gunfire ripped through their position, a collapsed structure at the edge of the central precinct of the planet's towering city of steel and glass. Loken had marveled at the city's elegance, and Peeter Egon Momus had declared it perfect when he had first seen the aerial scans. It didn't look perfect now.
Puffs of flickering detonations tore a line through the Astartes, and Loken dropped as the warrior with the flame unit disappeared in a column of fire. His armour kept him alive for a few seconds, but soon he was a burning statue, the armour joints fused, and Loken rolled onto his back to see a pair of speeding aircraft rolling around for another strafing run.
'Take those ships out!' yelled Loken as the craft, sleeker, more elegant Thunderhawk variants, turned their guns towards them once again.
The Astartes spread out as the under-slung gun pods erupted in fire, and a torrent of shells tore through their position, ripping thick columns in two and sending up blinding clouds of grey dust. Two warriors ducked out from behind a fallen wall, one aiming a long missile tube in the rough direction of the flier while the other sighted on it with a designator.
The missile launched in a streaming cloud of bright propellant, leaping into the sky and speeding after the closest flier. The pilot saw it and tried to evade, but he was too close to the ground and the missile flew straight into his intake, blowing the craft apart from the inside.
Its blazing remains plummeted towards the ground as Vipus shouted, 'Incoming!'
Loken turned to rebuke him for stating the obvious when he saw that his friend wasn't talking about the remaining flier. Three tracked vehicles smashed over a low ceramic brick wall behind them, their thick armoured forward sections emblazoned with a pair of crossed lightning bolts.
Too late, Loken realized the fliers had been keeping them pinned in place while the armoured transports circled around to flank them. Through the smoking wreckage of the burning bunker, he could see blurred forms moving towards them, darting from cover to cover as they advanced. Locasta was caught between two enemy forces and the noose was closing in.
Loken chopped his hand at the approaching vehicles and the missile team turned to engage their new targets. Within seconds, one was a smoking wreck as a missile punched through its armour and its plasma core exploded inside.
'Tarik!' he shouted over the din of gunfire from nearby. 'Keep our front secure.'
Torgaddon nodded, moving forwards with five warriors. Leaving him to it, Loken turned back towards the armoured vehicles as they crunched to a halt, pintle-mounted bolters hammering them with shots. Two men fell, their armour cracked open by the heavy shells.
'Close on them!' ordered Loken as the frontal assault ramps lowered and the Brotherhood warriors within charged out. The first few times Loken had fought the Brotherhood, he'd felt a treacherous hesitation seize his limbs, but nine months of gruelling campaigning had pretty much cured him of that.
Each warrior was armoured in fully enclosed plate, silver like the knights of old, with red and black heraldry upon their shoulder guards. Their form and function was horribly similar to that of the Sons of Horus, and though the enemy warriors were smaller than the Astartes, they were nevertheless a distorted mirror of them.
Loken and the warriors of Locasta were upon them, the lead Brotherhood warriors raising their weapons in response to the wild charge. The blade of Loken's chainsword hacked through the nearest warrior's gun and cleaved into his breastplate. The Brotherhood scattered, but Loken didn't give them a chance to recover from their surprise, cutting them down in quick, brutal strokes.
These warriors might look like Astartes, but, up close, they were no match for even one of them.
He heard gunfire from behind, and heard Torgaddon issuing orders to the men under his command. Stuttering impacts on Loken's leg armour drove him to his knees and he swept his sword low, hacking the legs from the enemy warrior behind him. Blood jetted from the stumps of his legs as he fell, spraying Loken's armour red.
The vehicle began reversing, but Loken threw a pair of grenades inside, moving on as the dull crump of the detonations halted it in its tracks. Shadows loomed over them and he felt the booming footfalls of the Titans of the Legio Mortis as they marched past, crushing whole swathes of the city as they went. Buildings were smashed from their path, and though missiles and lasers reached up to them, the flare of their powerful void shields were proof against such attacks.
More gunfire and screams filled the battlefield, the enemy falling back from the fury of the Astartes counterattack. They were courageous, these warriors of the Brotherhood, but they were hopelessly optimistic if they thought that simply wearing a suit of power armour made a man the equal of an Astartes.
'Area secure,' came Torgaddon's voice over the suit vox. 'Where to now?'
'Nowhere,' replied Loken as the last enemy warrior was slain. 'This is our object point. We wait until the World Eaters get here. Once we hand off to them, we can move on. Pass the word.'
'Understood,' said Torgaddon.
Loken savored the sudden quiet of the battlefield, the sounds of battle muted and distant as other companies fought their way through the city. He assigned Vipus to secure their perimeter and crouched beside the warrior whose legs he had cut off.
The man still lived, and Loken reached down to remove his helmet, a helmet so very similar to his own. He knew where the release catches were and slid the helm clear.
His enemy's face was pale from shock and blood loss, his eyes full of pain and hate, but there were no monstrously alien features beneath the helmet, simply ones as human as any member of the 63rd Expedition.
Loken could think of nothing to say to the man, and simply took off his own helmet and pulled the water-dispensing pipe from his gorget. He poured some clear, cold water over the man's face.
'I want nothing from you,' hissed the dying man.
'Don't speak,' said Loken. 'It will be over quickly.'
But the man was already dead.
'WHY SHOULDN'T WE be fighting this war?' asked Mersadie Oliton. 'You were there when they tried to assassinate the Warmaster.'
'I was there,' said Loken, putting down the cleaned firing chamber. 'I don't think I'll ever forget that moment.'
'Tell me about it.'
'It's not pretty,' warned Loken. 'You will think less of us when I tell you the truth of it.'
'You think so? A good documentarist remains objective at all times.'
'We'll see.'
THE AMBASSADORS OF the planet, which Loken had learned was named Aureus, had been greeted with all the usual pomp |
liton. 'You were there when they tried to assassinate the Warmaster.'
'I was there,' said Loken, putting down the cleaned firing chamber. 'I don't think I'll ever forget that moment.'
'Tell me about it.'
'It's not pretty,' warned Loken. 'You will think less of us when I tell you the truth of it.'
'You think so? A good documentarist remains objective at all times.'
'We'll see.'
THE AMBASSADORS OF the planet, which Loken had learned was named Aureus, had been greeted with all the usual pomp and ceremony accorded to a potentially friendly culture. Their vessels had glided onto the embarkation deck to surprised gasps as every warrior present recognized their uncanny similarity to Stormbirds.
The Warmaster was clad in his most regal armour, gold fluted and decorated with the Emperor's devices of lightning bolts and eagles. Unusually for an occasion such as this, he was armed with a sword and pistol, and Loken could feel the force of authority the Warmaster projected.
Alongside the Warmaster stood Maloghurst, robed in white, Regulus - his gold and steel augmetic body polished to a brilliant sheen - and First Captain Abaddon, who stood proudly with a detachment of hulking Justaerin Terminators.
It was a gesture to show strength and backing it up, three hundred Sons of Hours stood at parade rest behind the group, noble and regal in their bearing - the very image of the Great Crusade - and Loken had never been prouder of his illustrious heritage.
The doors of the craft opened with the hiss of decompression and Loken had his first glimpse of the Brotherhood.
A ripple of astonishment passed through the embarkation deck as twenty warriors in gleaming silver plate armour, the very image of the assembled Astartes, marched from the landing craft's interior in perfect formation, though Loken detected a stammer of surprise in them too. They carried weapons that looked very much like a standard-issue boltgun, though in deference to their hosts, none had magazines fitted.
'Do you see that?' whispered Loken.
'No, Garvi, I've suddenly been struck blind,' replied Torgaddon. 'Of course I see them.'
'They look like Astartes!'
'There's a resemblance, I'll give you that, but they're far too short.'
'They're wearing power armour... How is that possible?'
'If you keep quiet we might find out,' said Torgaddon.
The warriors wheeled and formed up around a tall man wearing long red robes, whose features were half-flesh, half machine and whose eye was a blinking emerald gem. Walking with the aid of a golden cog-topped staff, he stepped onto the deck with the pleased expression of one who finds his expectations more than met.
The Auretian delegation made its way towards Horus, and Loken could sense the weight of history pressing in on this moment. This meeting was the very embodiment of what the Great Crusade represented: lost brothers from across the galaxy once again meeting in the spirit of companionship.
The red robed man bowed before the Warmaster and said, 'Do I have the honour of addressing the Warmaster Horus?'
'You do, sir, but please do not bow,' replied Horus. 'The honour is mine.'
The man smiled, pleased at the courtesy. 'Then if you will permit me, I will introduce myself. I am Emory Salignac, Fabricator Consul to the Auretian Technocracy. On behalf of my people, may I be the first to welcome you to our worlds.'
Loken had seen Regulus's excitement at the sight of Salignac's augmetics, but upon hearing the full title of this new empire, his enthusiasm overcame the protocol of the moment.
'Consul,' said Regulus, his voice blaring and unnatural. 'Do I understand that your society is founded on the knowledge of technical data?'
Horus turned to the adept of the Mechanicum and whispered something that Loken didn't hear, but Regulus nodded and took a step back.
'I apologize for the adept's forthright questions, but I hope you might forgive his outburst, given that our warriors appear to share certain... similarities in their wargear.'
'These are the warriors of the Brotherhood,' explained Salignac. 'They are our protectors and our most elite soldiers. It honours me to have them as my guardians here.'
'How is it they are armoured so similarly to my own warriors?'
Salignac appeared to be confused by the question and said, 'You expected something different, my lord Warmaster? The construct machines our ancestors brought with them from Terra are at the heart of our society and provide us with the boon of technology. Though advanced, they do tend towards a certain uniformity of creation.'
The silence that greeted the consul's words was brittle and fragile, and Horus held up his hand to still the inevitable outburst from Regulus.
'Construct machines?' asked Horus, a cold edge of steel in his voice. 'STC machines?'
'I believe that was their original designation, yes,' agreed Salignac, lowering his staff and holding it towards the Warmaster. 'You have-'
Emory Salignac never got to finish his sentence as Horus took a step backward and drew his pistol. Loken saw the muzzle flash and watched Emory Salignac's head explode as the bolt blew out the back of his skull.
'YES,' SAID MERSADIE Oliton. 'The staff was some kind of energy weapon that could have penetrated the Warmaster's armour. We've been told this.'
Loken shook his head. 'No, there was no weapon.'
'Of course there was,' insisted Oliton, 'and when the consul's assassination attempt failed, his Brotherhood warriors attacked the Warmaster.'
Loken put down his bolter and said, 'Mersadie, forget what you have been told. There was no weapon, and after the Warmaster killed the consul, the Brotherhood only tried to escape. Their weapons were not loaded and they could not have fought us with any hope of success.'
'They were unarmed?'
'Yes.'
'So what did you do?'
'We killed them,' said Loken. 'They were unarmed, but we were not. Abaddon's Justaerin cut half a dozen of them down before they even knew what had happened. I led Locasta forward and we gunned them down as they tried to board their ship.'
'But why?' asked Oliton, horrified at his casual description of such slaughter.
'Because the Warmaster ordered it.'
'No, I mean why would the Warmaster shoot the consul if he wasn't armed? It doesn't make any sense.'
'No, it doesn't,' agreed Loken. 'I watched him kill the consul and I saw his face after we had killed the Brotherhood warriors.'
'What did you see?'
Loken hesitated, as though not sure he should answer. At last he said, 'I saw him smile.'
'Smile?'
'Yes,' said Loken, 'as if the killings had been part of his plan all along. I don't know why, but Horus wants this war.'
TORGADDON FOLLOWED THE hooded warrior down the darkened companionway towards the empty reserve armoury chamber. Serghar Targost had called a lodge meeting and Torgaddon was apprehensive, not liking the sensation one bit. He had attended only a single meeting since Davin, the quiet order no longer a place of relaxation for him. Though the Warmaster had been returned to them, the lodge's actions had smacked of subterfuge and such behaviour sat ill with Tarik Torgaddon.
The robed figure he followed was unknown to him, young and clearly in awe of the legendary Mournival officer, which suited Torgaddon fine. The warrior had clearly only achieved full Astartes status recently, but Torgaddon knew that he would already be an experienced fighter. There was no room for inexperience among the Sons of Horus, the months of war on Aureus making veterans or corpses of those raised from the novitiate and scout auxiliaries. The Brotherhood might not have the abilities of the Astartes, but the Technocracy could call on millions of them, and they fought with courage and honour.
It only made killing them all the harder. Fighting the megarachnids of Murder had been easy, their alien physiognomy repulsive to look upon and therefore easy to destroy.
The Brotherhood, though... they were so like the Sons of Horus that it was as though two Legions fought each other in some brutal civil war. Not one amongst the Legion had failed to experience a moment of pause at such a terrible image.
Torgaddon was saddened as he knew that, like the interex before them, the Brotherhood and the Auretian Technocracy would be destroyed.
A voice from the darkness ahead shook him from his somber thoughts.
'Who approaches?'
'Two souls,' replied the young warrior.
'What are your names?' the figure asked, but Torgaddon did not recognize the voice.
'I can't say,' said Torgaddon.
'Pass, friends.'
Torgaddon and the warrior passed the guardian of the portal and entered the reserve armoury. The vaulted chamber was much larger than the aft hold where meetings had commonly been held, and when he stepped into the flickering candlelit space, he could see why Targost had chosen it.
Hundreds of warriors filled the armoury, each one hooded and holding a flickering candle. Serghar Targost, Ezekyle Abaddon, Horus Aximand and Maloghurst stood at the centre of the gathering; to one side of them stood First Chaplain Erebus.
Torgaddon looked around at the assembled Astartes and couldn't escape the feeling that this meeting had been called for his benefit.
'You've been busy, Serghar,' he said. 'Been on a recruiting drive?'
'Since the Warmaster's recovery on Davin our stock has risen somewhat,' agreed Targost.
'So I see. Must be tricky keeping it secret now.'
'Amongst the Legion we no longer operate under a veil of secrecy.'
'Then why the same pantomime to enter?'
Targost smiled apologetically. 'Tradition, you understand?'
Torgaddon shrugged and crossed the chamber to stand before Erebus. He stared with undisguised hostility towards the first chaplain and said, 'You have been keeping a low profile since Davin. Captain Loken wants to speak with you.'
'I'm sure he does,' replied Erebus, 'but I am not under his command. I do not answer to him.'
'Then you'll answer to me, you bastard!' snapped Torgaddon, drawing his combat knife from |
pantomime to enter?'
Targost smiled apologetically. 'Tradition, you understand?'
Torgaddon shrugged and crossed the chamber to stand before Erebus. He stared with undisguised hostility towards the first chaplain and said, 'You have been keeping a low profile since Davin. Captain Loken wants to speak with you.'
'I'm sure he does,' replied Erebus, 'but I am not under his command. I do not answer to him.'
'Then you'll answer to me, you bastard!' snapped Torgaddon, drawing his combat knife from beneath his robes and holding it to Erebus's neck. Cries of alarm sounded at the sight of the knife, and Torgaddon saw the line of an old scar running across Erebus's neck.
'Looks like someone's already tried to cut your throat,' hissed Torgaddon. 'They didn't do a very good job of it, but don't worry, I won't make the same mistake.'
'Tarik!' cried Serghar Targost. 'You brought a weapon? You know they are forbidden.'
'Erebus owes us all an explanation,' said Torgaddon, pressing the knife against Erebus's jaw. 'This snake stole a kinebrach weapon from the Hall of Devices on Xenobia. He's the reason the negotiations with the interex failed. He's the reason the Warmaster was injured.'
'No, Tarik,' said Abaddon, moving to stand next to him and placing a hand on his wrist. 'The negotiations with the interex failed because they were meant to. The interex consorted with xenos breeds. They integrated with them. We could never have made peace with such people.'
'Ezekyle speaks the truth,' said Erebus.
'Shut your mouth,' snapped Torgaddon.
'Torgaddon, put the knife down,' said Horus Aximand. 'Please.'
Reluctantly, Torgaddon lowered his arm, the pleading tone of his Mournival brother making him realize the enormity of what he was doing in holding a knife to the throat of another Astartes, even one as untrustworthy as Erebus.
'We are not finished,' warned Torgaddon, pointing the blade at Erebus.
'I will be ready,' promised the Word Bearer.
'Both of you be silent,' said Targost. 'We have urgent matters to discuss that require you to listen. These last few months of war have been hard on everyone and no one fails to see the great tragedy inherent in fighting brother humans who look so very like us. Tensions are high, but we must remember that our purpose among the stars is to kill those who will not join with us.'
Torgaddon frowned at such a blunt mission statement, but said nothing as Targost continued his speech. 'We are Astartes and we were created to kill and conquer the galaxy. We have done all that has been asked of us and more, fighting for over two centuries to forge the new Imperium from the ashes of Old Night. We have destroyed planets, torn down cultures and wiped out entire species all because we were so ordered. We are killers, pure and simple, and we take pride in being the best at what we do!'
Cheering broke out at Targost's pronouncements, fists punching the air and hammering bulkheads, but Torgaddon had seen the iterators in action enough times to recognize cued applause. This speech was for his benefit and his alone, of that he was now certain.
'Now, as the Great Crusade draws to a close, we are lambasted for our ability to kill. Malcontents and agitators stir up trouble in our wake with bleating cries that we are too brutal, too savage and too violent. Our very own Lord Commander of the Army, Hektor Varvarus, demands blood for the actions of our grief-stricken brothers who returned the Warmaster to us while he lay dying. The traitor Varvarus demands that we be called to account for these regrettable deaths, and that we be punished for trying to save the Warmaster.'
Torgaddon flinched at the word 'traitor', shocked that Targost would openly use such an incendiary word to describe an officer as respected as Varvarus. But, as Torgaddon looked at the faces of the warriors around him, he saw only agreement with Targost's sentiment.
'Even civilians now feel they have the right to call us to account,' said Horus Aximand, taking up where Targost had left off and holding up a handful of parchments. 'Dissenters and conspirators amongst the remembrancers spread lies and propaganda that paint us as little better than barbarians.'
Aximand circled amongst the gathering, passing out the pamphlets as he spoke, 'This one is called The Truth is all We Have and it calls us murderers and savages. This turbulent poet mocks us in verse, brothers! These lies circulate amongst the fleet every day.'
Torgaddon took a pamphlet from Aximand and quickly scanned the paper, already knowing who had written it. Its contents were scathing, but hardly amounted to sedition.
'And this one!' cried Aximand. 'The Lectitio Divinitatus speaks of the Emperor as a god. A god! Can you imagine anything so ridiculous? These lies fill the heads of those we are fighting for. We fight and die for them and this is our reward: vilification and hate. I tell you this, my brothers, if we do not act now, the ship of the Imperium, which has weathered all storms, will sink through the mutiny of those onboard.'
Shouts of anger and calls for action echoed from the armoury walls, and Torgaddon did not like the ugly desire for reciprocity that he saw on the faces of his fellow warriors.
'Nice speech,' said Torgaddon when the roars of anger had diminished, 'but why don't you get to the point? I have a company to make ready for a combat drop.'
'Always the straight talker, eh, Tarik?' said Aximand. 'That is why you are respected and valued. That is why we need you with us, brother.'
'With you? What are you talking about?'
'Have you not heard a word that was said?' asked Maloghurst, limping over to where Torgaddon stood. 'We are under threat from within our own ranks. The enemy within, Tarik, it is the most insidious foe we have yet faced.'
'You'll need to speak plainly, Mal,' said Abaddon. 'Tarik needs it spelled out for him.'
'Up yours, Ezekyle,' said Torgaddon.
'I have learned that the remembrancer who writes these treasonous missives is called Ignace Karkasy,' said Maloghurst. 'He must be silenced.'
'Silenced? What do you mean by that?' asked Torgaddon. 'Given a slap on the wrist? Told not to be such a naughty boy? Something like that?'
'You know what I mean, Tarik,' stated Maloghurst.
'I do, but I want to hear you say it.'
'Very well, if you wish me to be direct, then I will be. Karkasy must die.'
'You're crazy, Mal, do you know that? You're talking about murder,' said Torgaddon.
'It's not murder when you kill your enemy, Tarik,' said Abaddon. 'It's war.'
'You want to make war on a poet?' laughed Torgaddon. 'Oh, they'll tell tales of that for centuries, Ezekyle. Can't you hear what you're saying? Anyway, the remembrancer is under Garviel's protection. You touch Karkasy and he'll hand your head to the Warmaster himself.'
A guilty silence enveloped the group at the mention of Loken's name, and the lodge members in front of Torgaddon shared an uneasy look.
Finally, Maloghurst said, 'I had hoped it would not come to this, but you leave us no choice, Tarik.'
Torgaddon gripped the hilt of his combat knife tightly, wondering if he would need to fight his way clear of his brothers.
'Put up your knife, we're not about to attack you,' snapped Maloghurst, seeing the tension in his eyes.
'Go on,' said Torgaddon, keeping a grip on the knife anyway. 'What did you hope it would not come to?'
'Hektor Varvarus claims to have spoken with the Council of Terra about events surrounding the Warmaster's injury, and it is certain that if he has not yet informed Malcador the Sigillite of the deaths on the embarkation deck, he soon will. He petitions the Warmaster daily with demands that there be justice.'
'And what has the Warmaster told him? I was there too. So was Ezekyle. You too Little Horus.'
'And so was Loken,' finished Erebus, joining the others. 'He led you onto the embarkation deck and he led the way through the crowd.'
Torgaddon took a step towards Erebus. 'I told you to be quiet!'
He turned from Erebus, and despair filled him as he saw acquiescent looks on his brothers' faces. They had already accepted the idea of throwing Garviel Loken to the wolves.
'You can't seriously be considering this, Mal,' protested Torgaddon. 'Ezekyle? Horus? You would betray your sworn Mournival brother?'
'He already betrays us by allowing this remembrancer to spread lies,' said Aximand.
'No, I won't do it,' swore Torgaddon.
'You must,' said Aximand. 'Only if you, Ezekyle and I swear oaths that it was Loken who orchestrated the massacre will Varvarus accept him as guilty.'
'So, that's what this is all about, is it?' asked Torgaddon. 'Two birds with one stone? Make Garviel your scapegoat, and you're free to murder Karkasy. How can you even consider this? The Warmaster will never agree to it.'
'Bluntly put, but you are mistaken if you think the Warmaster will not agree,' said Targost. 'This was his suggestion.'
'No!' cried Torgaddon. 'He wouldn't...'
'It can be no other way, Tarik,' said Maloghurst. 'The survival of the Legion is at stake.'
Torgaddon felt something inside him die at the thought of betraying his friend. His heart broke at making a choice between Loken and the Sons of Horus, but no sooner had the thought surfaced than he knew what he had to do.
He sheathed his combat knife and said, 'If betrayal and murder is needed to save the Legion then perhaps it does not deserve to survive! Garviel Loken is our brother and you would betray his honour like this? I spit on you for even thinking it.'
A horrified gasp spread through the chamber and angry mutterings closed in on Torgaddon.
'Think carefully, Tarik,' warned Maloghurst. 'You are either with us or against us.'
Torgaddon reached into his robes and tossed something silver and gleaning at Maloghurst's feet. The lodge medal glinted in the candlelight.
'Then I am against you,' said Torgaddon.
NINETEEN
Isolated
Allies
Eagle's wing
PETRONELLA SAT AT her escritoire, filling page after page with he |
it on you for even thinking it.'
A horrified gasp spread through the chamber and angry mutterings closed in on Torgaddon.
'Think carefully, Tarik,' warned Maloghurst. 'You are either with us or against us.'
Torgaddon reached into his robes and tossed something silver and gleaning at Maloghurst's feet. The lodge medal glinted in the candlelight.
'Then I am against you,' said Torgaddon.
NINETEEN
Isolated
Allies
Eagle's wing
PETRONELLA SAT AT her escritoire, filling page after page with her cramped handwriting, the spidery script tight and intense. Her dark hair was unbound and fell around her shoulders in untidy ringlets. Her complexion had the sallow appearance of one who has not stepped outside her room for many months, let alone seen daylight.
A pile of papers beside her was testament to the months she had spent in her luxurious cabin, though its luxury was a far cry from what it had been when she had first arrived on the Vengeful Spirit. The bed was unmade and her clothes lay strewn where she had discarded them before bed.
Her maidservant, Babeth, had done what she could to encourage her mistress to pause in her labours, but Petronella would have none of it. The words of the Warmaster's valediction had to be transcribed and interpreted in the most minute detail if she was to do his confession any justice. Even though his words had turned out not to be his last, she knew they deserved to be recorded, for she had tapped into the Warmaster's innermost thoughts. She had teased out information no one had contemplated before, secrets of the primarchs that had not seen the light of day since the Great Crusade had begun and truths that would rock the Imperium to its very core.
That such things should perhaps remain buried had occurred to her only once in her lonely sojourn, but she was the Palatina Majoria of House Carpinus and such questions had no meaning. Knowledge and truth were all that mattered and it would be for future generations to judge whether she had acted correctly.
She had a dim memory of speaking of these incredible truths to some poet or other in a dingy bar many months ago while very drunk, but she had no idea what had passed between them. He had not tried to contact her afterwards, so she could only assume that he hadn't tried to seduce her, or that she hadn't in fact been seduced. It was immaterial; she had locked herself away since the beginning of the war with the Technocracy, trawling every fragment of her mnemonic implants for the words and turns of phrase that the Warmaster had used.
She was writing too much, she knew, but damn the word count, her tale was too important to be constrained by the bindings of a mere book. She would tell the tale for as long as it took in the telling... but there was something missing.
As the weeks and months had passed, the gnawing sensation that something wasn't gelling grew from a suspicion to a certainty, and it had taken her until recently to realise what that was: context.
All she had were the Warmaster's words, there was no framework to hang them upon and without that, everything was meaningless. Finally realising what was amiss, she sought out Astartes warriors at every opportunity, but hit her first real obstacle in this regard.
No one was speaking to her.
As soon as any of her subjects knew what Petronella wanted, or who she was, they would clam up and refuse to speak another word, excusing themselves from her presence with polite abruptness.
Everywhere she had turned, she ran into walls of silence, and despite repeated entreaties to the office of the Warmaster to intervene, she was getting nowhere. Every one of her requests for an audience with the Warmaster was declined, and she soon began to despair of ever finding a means of telling her tale.
Inspiration as to how to break this deadlock had come yesterday after yet another afternoon of abject failure. As always, Maggard escorted her, clad in his golden battle armour and armed with his Kirlian rapier and pistol. After the fighting on Davin, Maggard had made a speedy recovery, and Petronella had noticed a more cocksure swagger to his step. She also noticed that he was treated with more respect around the ship than she was. Of course, such a state of affairs was intolerable, despite the fact that it made his vigour as her concubine that much more forceful and pleasurable.
An Astartes warrior had nodded in respect as Petronella despondently travelled along the upper decks of the ship towards her stateroom. She had made to nod back, before realising that the Astartes had been paying his respects to Maggard, not her.
A scroll upon the Astartes's shoulder guard bore a green crescent moon, marking him out as a veteran of the Davin campaign and thus no doubt aware of Maggard's fighting prowess.
Indignation surged to the surface, but before Petronella said anything, an idea began to form and she hurried back to the stateroom.
Petronella had stood Maggard in the centre of the room and said, 'It's so obvious to me now, shame on me for not thinking of this sooner.'
Maggard looked puzzled, and she moved closer to him, stroking her hand down his moulded breastplate. He seemed uncomfortable with this, but she pressed on, knowing that he would do anything for her in fear of reprisal should he refuse.
'It's because I am a woman,' she said. 'I'm not part of their little club.'
She moved behind him and stood on her tiptoes, placing her hands on his shoulders. 'I'm not a warrior. I've never killed anyone, well, not myself, and that's what they respect: killing. You've killed men, haven't you Maggard?'
He nodded curtly.
'Lots?'
Maggard nodded again and she laughed. 'I'm sure they know that too. You can't speak to boast of your prowess, but I'm sure the Astartes know it. Even the ones that weren't on Davin will be able to see that you're a killer.'
Maggard licked his lips, keeping his golden eyes averted from her.
'I want you to go amongst them,' she ordered. 'Let them see you. Inveigle yourself into their daily rituals. Find out all you can about them and each day we will use the mnemo-quill to transcribe what you've discovered. You're mute, so they'll think you simple. Let them. They will be less guarded if they think they humour a dolt.'
She could see that Maggard was unhappy with this task, but his happiness was of no consequence to her and she had sent him out the very next morning.
She had spent the rest of the day writing, sending Babeth out for food and water when she realised she was hungry, and trying different stylistic approaches to the introduction of her manuscript.
The door to her stateroom opened and Petronella looked up from her work. The chronometer set into the escritoire told her that it was late afternoon, ship time.
She swivelled in her chair to see Maggard enter her room and smiled, reaching over to pull her data-slate close and then lifting the mnemo-quill from the Lethe-well.
'You spent time with the Astartes?' she asked.
Maggard nodded.
'Good,' said Petronella, sitting the reactive nib on the slate and clearing her mind of her own thoughts.
'Tell me everything,' she commanded, as the quill began to scratch out his thoughts.
THE WARMASTER'S SANCTUM was silent save for the occasional hissing, mechanical hum from the exo-armature of Regulus's body, and the rustle of fabric as Maloghurst shifted position. Both stood behind the Warmaster, who sat in his chair at the end of the long table, his hands steepled before him and his expression thunderous.
'The Brotherhood should be carrion food by now,' he said. 'Why have the World Eaters not yet stormed the walls of the Iron Citadel?'
Captain Kharn, equerry to Angron himself, stood firm before the Warmaster's hostile stare, the dim light of the sanctum reflecting from the blue and white of his plate armour.
'My lord, its walls are designed to resist almost every weapon we have available, but I assure you the fortress will be ours within days,' said Kharn.
'You mean mine,' growled the Warmaster.
'Of course, Lord Warmaster,' replied Kharn.
'And tell my brother Angron to get up here. I haven't seen hide nor hair of him in months. I'll not have him sulking in some muddy trench avoiding me just because he can't deliver on his promises.'
'If I may be so bold, my primarch told you that this battle would take time,' explained Kharn. 'The citadel was built with the old technology and needs siege experts like the Iron Warriors to break it open.'
'And if I could contact Perturabo, I would have him here,' said the Warmaster.
Regulus spoke from behind the Warmaster. 'The STC machines will be able to counter much of the Mechanicum's arsenal. If the Dark Age texts are correct, they will adapt and react to changing circumstances, creating ever more cunning means of defence.'
'The citadel may be able to adapt,' said Captain Kharn, angrily gripping the haft of his axe, 'but it will not be able to stand before the fury of the XII Legion. The sons of Angron will tear the beating heart from that fortress for you, Warmaster. Have no doubt of that.'
'Fine words, Captain Kharn,' said Horus. 'Now storm that citadel for me. Kill everyone you find within.'
The World Eater bowed and turned on his heel, marching from the sanctum.
Once the doors slid shut behind Kharn, Horus said, 'That ought to light a fire under Angron's backside. This war is taking too damn long. There is other business to be upon.'
Regulus and Maloghurst came around from behind the Warmaster, the equerry taking a seat to ease his aching body.
'We must have those STC machines,' said Regulus.
'Yes, thank you, adept, I had quite forgotten that,' said Horus. 'I know very well what those machines represent, even if the fools who control them do not.'
'My order will compensate you handsomely for them, my lord,' said Regulus.
Horus smiled and said, 'At last we come to it, adept.'
'Come to what, my lord?'
'Do not think me a simpleton, Regulus,' cautioned Horus. |
m behind the Warmaster, the equerry taking a seat to ease his aching body.
'We must have those STC machines,' said Regulus.
'Yes, thank you, adept, I had quite forgotten that,' said Horus. 'I know very well what those machines represent, even if the fools who control them do not.'
'My order will compensate you handsomely for them, my lord,' said Regulus.
Horus smiled and said, 'At last we come to it, adept.'
'Come to what, my lord?'
'Do not think me a simpleton, Regulus,' cautioned Horus. 'I know of the Mechanicum's quest for the ancient knowledge. Fully functional construct machines would be quite a prize, would they not?'
'Beyond imagining,' admitted Regulus. 'To rediscover the thinking engines that drove humanity into the stars and allowed the colonisation of the galaxy is a prize worth any price.'
'Any price?' asked Horus.
'These machines will allow us to achieve the unimaginable, to reach into the halo stars and perhaps even other galaxies,' said Regulus. 'So yes, any price is worth paying.'
'Then you shall have them,' said Horus.
Regulus seemed taken aback by such a monumentally grand offer and said, 'I thank you, Warmaster. You cannot imagine the boon you grant the Mechanicum.'
Horus stood and circled behind Regulus, staring unabashedly at the remnants of flesh that clung to his metallic components. Shimmering fields contained the adept's organs, and a brass musculature gave him a measure of mobility.
'There is little of you that can still be called human, isn't there?' asked Horus. 'In that regard you are not so different from myself or Maloghurst.'
'My lord?' replied Regulus. 'I aspire to the perfection of the machine state, but would not presume to compare myself with the Astartes.'
'As well you should not,' said Horus, continuing to pace around the sanctum. 'I will give you these construct machines, but as we have established, there will be a price.'
'Name it, my lord. The Mechanicum will pay it.'
'The Great Crusade is almost at an end, Regulus, but our efforts to secure the galaxy are only just beginning,' said Horus, leaning over the table and planting his hands on its black surface. 'I am poised to embark on the greatest endeavour imaginable, but I need allies, or all will come to naught. Can I count on you and the Mechanicum?'
'What is this great endeavour?' asked Regulus.
Horus waved his hand and came around the table to stand next to the adept of the Mechanicum once more, placing a reassuring hand on his brass armature.
'No need to go into the details just now,' he said. 'Just tell me that you and your brethren will support me when the time comes and the construct machines are yours.'
A whirring mechanical arm wrapped in gold mesh swung over the table and placed a polished machine-cog gently on its surface.
'As much of the Mechanicum as I command is yours Warmaster,' promised Regulus, 'and as much strength as I can muster from those I do not.'
Horus smiled and said, 'Thank you, adept. That's all I wanted to hear.'
ON THE SIXTH day of the tenth month of the war against the Auretian Technocracy, the 63rd Expedition was thrown into panic when a group of vessels translated in-system behind it, in perfect attack formation.
Boas Comnenus attempted to turn his ships to face the new arrivals, but even as the manoeuvres began, he knew it would be too late. Only when the mysterious ships reached, and then passed, optimal firing range, did those aboard the Vengeful Spirit understand that the vessels had no hostile intent.
Relieved hails were sent from the Warmaster's flagship to be met with an amused voice that spoke with the cultured accent of Old Terra.
'Horus, my brother,' said the voice. 'It seems I still have a thing or two to teach you.'
On the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit, Horus said, 'Fulgrim.'
DESPITE THE HARDSHIPS of the war, Loken was excited at the prospect of meeting the warriors of the Emperor's Children once again. He had spent as much time as his duties allowed in repairing his armour, though he knew it was still in a sorry state. He and the Mournival stood behind the Warmaster as he waited proudly on the upper transit dock of the Vengeful Spirit, ready to receive the primarch of the III Legion.
Fulgrim had been one of the Warmaster's staunchest supporters since his elevation to Warmaster, easing the concerns of Angron, Perturabo and Corax when they raged against the honour done to Horus and not them. Fulgrim's voice had been the breath of calm that had stilled bellicose hearts and soothed raffled pride.
Without Fulgrim's wisdom, Loken knew that it was unlikely that the Warmaster would ever have been able to command the loyalty of the Legions so completely.
He heard metallic scrapes from beyond the pressure door.
Loken had seen Fulgrim once before at the Great Triumph on Ullanor, and even though it had been from a distance as he had marched past with tens of thousands of other Astartes warriors, Loken's impression of the primarch had never faded from his mind.
It was a palpable honour to stand once again in the presence of two such godlike beings as the primarchs.
The eagle-stamped pressure door slid open and the Primarch of the Emperor's Children stepped onto the Vengeful Spirit.
Loken's first impression was of the great golden eagle's wing that swept up over Fulgrim's left shoulder. The primarch's armour was brilliant purple, edged in bright gold and inlaid with the most exquisite carvings. Hooded bearers carried his long, scaled cloak, and trailing parchments hung from his shoulder guards.
A high collar of deepest purple framed a face that was pale to the point of albinism, the eyes so dark as to be almost entirely pupil. The hint of a smile played around his lips and his hair was a shimmering white.
Loken had once called Hastur Sejanus a beautiful man, adored by all, but seeing the Primarch of the Emperor's Children up close for the first time, he knew that his paltry vocabulary was insufficient for the perfection he saw in Fulgrim.
Fulgrim opened his arms and the two primarchs embraced like long-lost brothers.
'It has been too long, Horus,' said Fulgrim.
'It has, my brother, it has,' agreed Horus. 'My heart sings to see you, but why are you here? You were prosecuting a campaign throughout the Perdus Anomaly. Is the region compliant already?'
'What worlds we found there are now compliant, yes,' nodded Fulgrim as four warriors stepped through the pressure door behind him. Loken smiled to see Saul Tarvitz, his patrician features unable to contain his relish at being reunited with his brothers of the Sons of Horus.
Lord Commander Eidolon came next, looking as unrepentantly viperous as Torgaddon had described him. Lucius the swordsman came next, still with the same sardonic expression of superiority that he remembered, though his face was now heavily scarred. Behind him came a warrior Loken did not recognise, a sallow-skinned Astartes in the armour of an apothecary, with gaunt cheeks and a long mane of hair as white as that of his primarch.
Fulgrim turned from Horus and said, 'I believe you are already familiar with some of my brothers, Tarvitz, Lucius and Lord Commander Eidolon, but I do not believe you have met my Chief Apothecary Fabius.'
'It is an honour to meet you, Lord Horus,' said Fabius, bowing low.
Horus acknowledged the gesture of respect and said, 'Come now, Fulgrim, you know better than to try to stall me. What's so important that you turn up here unannounced and give half of my crew heart attacks?'
The smile fell from Fulgrim's pale lips and he said, 'There have been reports, Horus.'
'Reports? What does that mean?'
'Reports that things are not as they should be,' replied Fulgrim, 'that you and your warriors should be called to account for the brutality of this campaign. Is Angron up to his usual tricks?'
'Angron is as he has always been.'
'That bad?'
'No, I keep him on a short leash, and his equerry, Kharn, seems to curb the worst of our brother's excesses.'
'Then I have arrived just in time.'
'I see,' said Horus. 'Are you here to relieve me then?'
Fulgrim could keep a straight face no longer and laughed, his dark eyes sparkling with mirth. 'Relieve you? No, my brother, I am here so that I can return and tell those fops and scribes on Terra that Horus fights war the way it is meant to be fought: hard, fast and cruel.'
'War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueller it is, the sooner it is over.'
Fulgrim said, 'Indeed, my brother. Come, there is much for us to talk about, for these are strange times we live in. It seems our brother Magnus has once again done something to upset the Emperor, and the Wolf of Fenris has been unleashed to escort him back to Terra.'
'Magnus?' asked Horus, suddenly serious. 'What has he done?'
'Let us talk of it in private,' said Fulgrim. 'Anyway, I have a feeling my subordinates would welcome the chance to reacquaint themselves with your... what do you call it? Mournival?'
'Yes,' smiled Horus, 'memories of Murder no doubt.'
Loken felt a chill travel down his spine as he recognised the smile on Horus's face, the same one he had worn right after he had blown out the Auretian consul's brains on the embarkation deck.
WITH HORUS AND Fulgrim gone, Abaddon and Aximand, together with Eidolon, followed the two primarchs, while Loken and Torgaddon exchanged greetings with the Emperor's Children. The Sons of Horus welcomed their brothers with laughter and crushing bear hugs, the Emperor's Children with decorum and reserve.
For Torgaddon and Tarvitz it was a reunion of comrades, with a mutual respect forged in the heat of battle, their easy friendship clear for all to see.
The apothecary, Fabius, requested directions to the medicae deck and excused himself with a bow upon receiving them.
Lucius remained with the two members of the Mournival, and Torgaddon couldn't resist baiting him just a little. 'So, Lucius, you fancy another round in the training cages with Garviel? From t |
s Children with decorum and reserve.
For Torgaddon and Tarvitz it was a reunion of comrades, with a mutual respect forged in the heat of battle, their easy friendship clear for all to see.
The apothecary, Fabius, requested directions to the medicae deck and excused himself with a bow upon receiving them.
Lucius remained with the two members of the Mournival, and Torgaddon couldn't resist baiting him just a little. 'So, Lucius, you fancy another round in the training cages with Garviel? From the look of your face you could do with the practice.'
The swordsman had the good grace to smile, the many scars twisting on his flesh, and said, 'No thank you. I fear I may have grown beyond Captain Loken's last lesson. I would not want to humble him this time.'
'Come on, just one bout?' asked Loken. 'I promise I'll be gentle.'
'Yes, come on, Lucius,' said Tarvitz. 'The honour of the Emperor's Children is at stake.'
Lucius smiled. 'Very well, then.'
LOKEN COULD NOT remember much of the bout; it had been over so quickly. Evidently, Lucius had indeed learned his lesson well. No sooner had the practice cage shut than the swordsman attacked. Loken had been ready for such a move, but even so, was almost overwhelmed in the first seconds of the fight.
The two warriors fought back and forth, Torgaddon and Saul Tarvitz cheering from outside the practice cages.
The bout had attracted quite a crowd, and Loken wished Torgaddon had kept word of it to himself.
Loken fought with all the skill he could muster, while Lucius sparred with a casual playfulness. Within moments, Loken's sword was stuck in the ceiling of the practice cage, and Lucius had a blade at his throat.
The swordsman had barely broken sweat, and Loken knew that he was hopelessly outclassed by Lucius. To fight Lucius with life and death resting on the blades would be to die, and he suspected that there was no one in the Sons of Horus who could best him.
Loken bowed before the swordsman and said, 'That's one each, Lucius.'
'Care for a decider?' smirked Lucius, dancing back and forth on the balls of his feet and slicing his swords through the air.
'Not this time,' said Loken. 'Next time we meet, we'll put something serious on the outcome, eh?'
'Any time, Loken,' said Lucius, 'but I'll win. You know that, don't you?'
'Your skill is great, Lucius, but just remember that there's someone out there who can beat you.'
'Not this lifetime,' said Lucius.
THE QUIET ORDER met once again in the armoury, though this was a more select group than normally gathered with Lodge Master Serghar Targost presiding over an assemblage of the Legion's senior officers.
Aximand felt a pang of regret and loss as he saw that, of the Legion's captains, only Loken, Torgaddon, Iacton Qruze and Tybalt Marr were absent.
Candles lit the armoury and each captain had dispensed with his hooded robes. This was a gathering for debate, not theatrics.
'Brothers,' said Targost, 'this is a time for decisions: hard decisions. We face dissent from within, and now Fulgrim arrives out of the blue to spy on us.'
'Spy?' said Aximand. 'Surely you don't think that Fulgrim would betray his brother? The Warmaster is closer to Fulgrim than he is to Sanguinius.'
'What else would you call him?' asked Abaddon. 'Fulgrim said as much when he arrived.'
'Fulgrim is as frustrated by the situation back on Terra as we are,' said Maloghurst. 'He knows that those who desire the outcome of war do not desire to see the blood of its waging. His Legion seeks perfection in all things, especially war, and we have all seen how the Emperor's Children fight: with unremitting ruthlessness and efficiency. They may fight differently from us, but they achieve the same result.'
'When Fulgrim's warriors see how the war is fought on Aureus they will know that there is no honour in it,' added Luc Sedirae. 'The World Eaters shock even me. I make no secret of the fact that I live for battle and revel in my ability to kill, but the Sons of Angron are... uncivilised. They do not fight, they butcher.'
'They get the job done, Luc,' said Abaddon. 'That's all that matters. Once the Titans of the Mechanicum break open the walls of the Iron Citadel, you'll be glad to have them by your side when it comes time to storm the breaches.'
Sedirae nodded and said, 'There is truth in that. The Warmaster wields them like a weapon, but will Fulgrim see that?'
'Leave Fulgrim to me, Luc,' said a powerful voice from the shadows, and the warriors of the quiet order turned in surprise as a trio of figures emerged from the darkness.
The lead figure was armoured in ceremonially adorned armour, the white plate shimmering in the candlelight, and the red eye on his chest plate glowing with reflected fire.
Aximand and his fellow captains dropped to their knees as Horus entered their circle, his gaze sweeping around his assembled captains.
'So this is where you've been gathering in secret?'
'My lord-' began Targost, but Horus held up his hand to silence him.
'Hush, Serghar,' said Horus. 'There's no need for explanations. I have heard your deliberations and come to shed some light upon them, and to bring some new blood to your quiet order.'
As he spoke, Horus gestured the two figures that had accompanied him to come forward. Aximand saw that one was an Astartes, Tybalt Marr, while the other was a mortal clad in gold armour, the warrior who had fought to protect the Warmaster's documentarist on Davin.
'Tybalt you already know,' continued the Warmaster. 'Since the terrible death of Verulam, he has struggled to come to terms with the loss. I believe he will find the support he needs within our order. The other is a mortal, and though not Astartes, he is a warrior of courage and strength.'
Serghar Targost raised his head and said, 'A mortal within the order? The order is for Astartes only.'
'Is it, Serghar? I was led to believe that this was a place where men were free to meet and converse, and confide outside the strictures of rank and martial order.'
'The Warmaster is right,' said Aximand, rising to his feet. 'There is only one qualification a man needs to be a part of our quiet order. He must be a warrior.'
Targost nodded, though he was clearly unhappy with the decision.
'Very well, let them come forward and show the sign,' he said.
Both Marr and the gold-armoured warrior stepped forward and held out their hands. In each palm, a silver lodge medal glinted.
'Let them speak their names,' said Targost.
'Tybalt Marr,' said the Captain of the 18th Company.
The mortal said nothing, looking helplessly at Horus. The lodge members waited for him to announce himself, but no name was forthcoming.
'Why does he not identify himself?' asked Aximand.
'He can't say,' replied Horus with a smile. 'Sorry, I couldn't resist, Serghar. This is Maggard, and he is mute. It has come to my attention that he wishes to learn more of our Legion, and I thought this might be a way of showing him our true faces.'
'He will be made welcome,' assured Aximand, 'but you didn't come here just to bring us two new members, did you?'
'Always thinking, Little Horus,' laughed Horus. 'I've always said you were the wise one.'
'Then why are you here?' asked Aximand.
'Aximand!' hissed Targost. 'This is the Warmaster, he goes where he wills.'
Horus held up his hand and said, 'It's alright, Serghar, Little Horus has a right to ask. I've kept out of your affairs for long enough, so it's only fair I explain this sudden visit.'
Horus walked between them, smiling and bathing them in the force of his personality. He stood before Aximand and the effect was intoxicating. Horus had always been a being of supreme majesty, whose beauty and charisma could bewitch even the most stoic hearts.
As he met the Warmaster's gaze, Aximand saw that his power to seduce was beyond anything he had experienced before, and he felt shamed that he had questioned this luminous being. What right did he have to ask anything of the Warmaster?
Horus winked, and the spell was broken.
The Warmaster moved into the centre of the group and said. 'You are right to gather and debate the coming days, my sons, for they will be hard indeed. Times are upon us when we must make difficult decisions, and there will be those who will not understand why we do what we do, because they were not here beside us.'
Horus stopped before each of the captains in turn, and Aximand could see the effect his words were having on them. Each warrior's face lit up as though the sun shone upon it.
'I am set upon a course that will affect every man under my command, and the burden of my decision is a heavy weight upon my shoulders, my sons.'
'Share it with us!' cried Abaddon. 'We are ready to serve.'
Horus smiled and said, 'I know you are, Ezekyle, and it gives me strength to know that I have warriors with me who are as steadfast and true as you.'
'We are yours to command,' promised Serghar Targost. 'Our first loyalty is to you.'
'I am proud of you all,' said Horus, his voice emotional, 'but I have one last thing to ask of you.'
'Ask us,' said Abaddon.
Horus placed his hand gratefully on Abaddon's shoulder guard and said, 'Before you answer, consider what I am about to say carefully. If you choose to follow me on this grand adventure, there will be no turning back once we have embarked upon it. For good or ill, we go forward, never back.'
'You always were one for theatrics,' noted Aximand. 'Are you going to get to the point?'
Horus nodded and said, 'Yes, of course, Little Horus, but you'll indulge my sense for the dramatic I hope?'
'It wouldn't be you otherwise.'
'Agreed,' said Horus, 'but yes, to get to the point. I am about to take us down the most dangerous path, and not all of us will survive. There will be those of the Imperium who will call us traitors and rebels for our actions, but you must ignore their bleatings and trust that I am certain of our course. The days ahead will be hard and painful, but we must see them through to th |
'Yes, of course, Little Horus, but you'll indulge my sense for the dramatic I hope?'
'It wouldn't be you otherwise.'
'Agreed,' said Horus, 'but yes, to get to the point. I am about to take us down the most dangerous path, and not all of us will survive. There will be those of the Imperium who will call us traitors and rebels for our actions, but you must ignore their bleatings and trust that I am certain of our course. The days ahead will be hard and painful, but we must see them through to the end.'
'What would you have us do?' asked Abaddon.
'In good time, Ezekyle, in good time,' said Horus. 'I just need to know that you are with me, my sons. Are you with me?'
'We are with you!' shouted the warriors as one.
'Thank you,' said Horus, gratefully, 'but before we act, we must set our own house in order. Hektor Varvarus and this remembrancer, Karkasy: they must be silenced while we gather our strength. They draw unwelcome attention to us and that is unacceptable.'
'Varvarus is not a man to change his mind, my lord,' warned Aximand, 'and the remembrancer is under Garviel's protection.'
'I will take care of Varvarus,' said the Warmaster, 'and the remembrancer... Well, I'm sure that with the correct persuasion he will do the right thing.'
'What do you intend, my lord?' asked Aximand.
'That they be illuminated as to the error of their ways,' said Horus.
TWENTY
The breach
A midday clear
Plans
THE VISIT OF the Emperor's Children was painfully brief, the two primarchs sequestering themselves behind closed doors for its entirety, while their warriors sparred, drank and talked of war. Whatever passed between the Warmaster and Fulgrim appeared to satisfy the Primarch of the Emperor's Children that all was well, and three days later, an honour guard formed up at the upper transit dock as the Emperor's Children bade their farewells to the Sons of Horus.
Saul Tarvitz and Torgaddon said heartfelt goodbyes, while Lucius and Loken exchanged wry handshakes, each anticipating the next time they would cross blades. Eidolon nodded curtly to Torgaddon and Loken, as Apothecary Fabius made his exit without a word.
Fulgrim and Horus shared a brotherly embrace, whispering words only they could hear to one another. The wondrously perfect Primarch of the Emperor's Children turned with a flourish towards the pressure door and stepped from the Vengeful Spirit, his long, scale cloak billowing behind him.
Something glinted beneath the cloak, and Loken did a double take as he caught a fleeting glimpse of a horribly familiar golden sword belted at Fulgrim's waist.
LOKEN SAW THAT the Iron Citadel was aptly named, its gleaming walls rearing from the rock like jagged metal teeth. The mid-morning light reflected from its shimmering walls, the air rippling in the haze of energy fields, and clouds of metal shavings raining down from self-repairing ramparts. The outer precincts of the fortress were in ruins, the result of a four-month siege waged by the warriors of Angron and the war machines of the Mechanicum.
The Dies Irae and her sister Titans bombarded the walls daily, hurling high explosive shells and crackling energy beams at the citadel, slowly but surely pushing the Brotherhood back to this, their last bastion.
The citadel itself was a colossal half moon in plan, set against the rock of a range of white mountains, its approach guarded by scores of horn-works and redoubts. Most of these fortifications were little more than smouldering rubble, the Mechanicum's Legio Reductor corps having expended a fearsome amount of ordnance to flatten them in preparation for the storm of the Iron Citadel.
After months of constant shelling, the walls of the citadel had finally been broken open and a half-kilometre wide breach had been torn in its shining walls. The citadel was ready to fall, but the Brotherhood would fight for it to the bitter end, and Loken knew that most of the warriors who were to climb that breach would die.
He waited for the order of battle with trepidation, knowing that an escalade was the surest way for a warrior to meet his end. Statistically, a man was almost certain to die when assaulting the walls of a well-defended fortress, and it was therefore beholden to him to make that death worthwhile.
'Will it be soon, do you think, Garvi?' asked Vipus, checking the action of his chainsword for the umpteenth time.
'I think so,' said Loken, 'but I imagine that the World Eaters will be first into the breach.'
'They're welcome to the honour,' grunted Torgaddon, and Loken was surprised at his comrade's sentiment. Torgaddon was normally the first to request a place in the speartip of any battle, though he had been withdrawn and sullen for some time now. He would not be drawn on the reasons why, but Loken knew it had to do with Aximand and Abaddon.
Their fellow Mournival members had barely spoken to them over the course of this war, except where operational necessity had demanded it. Neither had the four of them met with the Warmaster since Davin. For all intents and purposes, the Mournival was no more.
The Warmaster kept his own council, and Loken found himself in agreement with Iacton Qruze's sentiments that the Legion had lost its way. The words of the 'half-heard' carried no real weight in the Sons of Horus, and the aged veteran's complaints were largely ignored.
Loken's growing suspicions had been fed by what Apothecary Vaddon had told him when he had rushed to the medicae deck after the departure of the Emperor's Children.
He had found the apothecary in the midst of surgery, ministering to the Legion's wounded, the tiled floor slick with congealed blood.
Loken had knotwn better than to disturb Vaddon's labours and only when the apothecary had finished did Loken speak to him.
'The anathame?' demanded Loken. 'Where is it?'
Vaddon looked up from washing his hands of blood. 'Captain Loken. The anathame? I don't have it any more. I thought you knew.'
'No,' said Loken. 'I didn't. What happened to it? I told you to tell no one that it was in your possession.'
'And nor did I,' said Vaddon angrily. 'He already knew I had it.'
'He?' asked Loken. 'Who are you talking about?'
'The apothecary of the Emperor's Children, Fabius,' said Vaddon. 'He came to the medicae deck a few hours ago and told me he had been authorised to remove it.'
A cold chill seized Loken as he asked, 'Authorised by whom?'
'By the Warmaster,' said Vaddon.
'And you just gave him it?' asked Loken. 'Just like that?'
'What was I supposed to do?' snarled Vaddon. 'This Fabius had the Warmaster's seal. I had to give it to him.'
Loken took a deep calming breath, knowing that the apothecary would have had no choice when presented with the seal of Horus. The months of research Vaddon had performed on the weapon had, thus far, yielded no results, and with its removal from the Vengeful Spirit, any chance of uncovering its secrets was lost forever.
A crackling voice in Loken's helmet shook him from his sour memory of the second theft of the anathame, and he focused on the order of battle streaming through his headset. Sure enough, the World Eaters were going in first, a full assault company led by Angron himself and supported by two companies of the Sons of Horus, the Tenth and the Second: Loken and Torgaddon's companies.
Torgaddon and Loken shared an uneasy glance. To be given the honour of going into the breach seemed at odds with their current status within the Legion, but the order was given and there was no changing it now. Army regiments would follow to secure the ground the Astartes won, and Hektor Varvarus himself would lead these detachments.
Loken shook hands with Torgaddon and said, 'See you on the inside, Tarik.'
'Try not to get yourself killed, Garvi,' said Torgaddon.
'Thanks for the reminder,' said Loken, 'and here was me thinking that was the point.'
'Don't joke, Garvi,' said Torgaddon. 'I'm serious. I think we're going to need each other's support before this campaign is over.'
'What do you mean?'
'Never mind,' said Torgaddon. 'We'll talk more once this citadel is ours, eh?'
'Yes, we'll share a bottle of victory wine in the ruins of the Brotherhood's citadel.'
Torgaddon nodded and said, 'You're buying though.'
They shook hands once more and Torgaddon jogged away to rejoin his warriors and ready them for the bloody assault. Loken watched him go, wondering if he would see his friend alive again to share that drink. He pushed such defeatism aside as he made his way through his own company to pass out orders and offer words of encouragement.
He turned as a huge cheer erupted from further down the mountains, seeing a column of warriors clad in the blue and white armour of the World Eaters, marching towards the approaches to the breach. The assaulters of the World Eaters were hulking warriors equipped with mighty chain axes and heavy jump packs. They were brutality distilled and concentrated violence moulded them into the most fearsome close combat fighters Loken had ever seen. Leading them was the Primarch Angron.
ANGRON, THE BLOODY One: the Red Angel.
Loken had heard all these names and more for Angron, but none of them did justice to the sheer brutal physicality of the Primarch of the World Eaters. Clad in an ancient suit of gladiatorial armour, Angron was like a warrior from some lost heroic age. A glinting mesh cape of chain mail hung from his high gorget and pauldrons, with skulls worked into its weave like barbaric trophies.
He was armed to the teeth with short, stabbing swords, and daggers the length of an Astartes chain-blade. An ornate pistol of antique design was holstered on each thigh, and he carried a monstrous chain-glaive, its terrifying size beyond anything Loken could believe.
'Throne alive...' breathed Nero Vipus as Angron approached. 'I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes.'
'I know what you mean,' answered Loken, the mighty primarch's savage and tribal appearance putting him in mind of |
ed to the teeth with short, stabbing swords, and daggers the length of an Astartes chain-blade. An ornate pistol of antique design was holstered on each thigh, and he carried a monstrous chain-glaive, its terrifying size beyond anything Loken could believe.
'Throne alive...' breathed Nero Vipus as Angron approached. 'I wouldn't have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes.'
'I know what you mean,' answered Loken, the mighty primarch's savage and tribal appearance putting him in mind of the bloody tales he had read in the Chronicles of Ursh.
Angron's face was murder itself, his thick features scarred and bloody. Dark iron glinted on his scalp where cerebral cortex implants punctured his skull to amplify his already fearsome aggression. The implants had been grafted to Angron's brain when he had been a slave, centuries before, and though the technology to remove them was available, he had never wanted them removed.
The bloody primarch marched past, glancing over at the men of 10th Company as he led his warriors towards the bloodletting. Loken shivered at the sight of him, seeing only death in his heavy-lidded eyes, and he wondered what terrible thoughts must fill Angron's violated skull.
No sooner had the Primarch of the World Eaters passed than the bombardment began, the guns of the Legio Mortis launching rippling salvoes of rockets and shells into the breach.
Loken watched as Angron delivered his assault orders with curt chops of his glaive, and felt a momentary pity for the Brotherhood warriors within the citadel. Though they were his sworn enemies, he did not envy them the prospect of fighting such a living avatar of blood and death.
A terrifying war cry sounded from the World Eaters, and Loken watched as Angron led his company in a crude ritual of scarification. The warriors removed their left gauntlets and slashed their axes across their palms, smearing the blood across the faceplates of their helmets as they chanted canticles of death and bloodshed.
'I almost feel sorry for the poor bastards in the citadel,' said Vipus, echoing Loken's earlier thoughts.
'Pass the word to stand ready,' he ordered. 'We move out when the World Eaters reach the crest of the breach.'
He held out his hand to Nero Vipus and said, 'Kill for the living, Nero.'
'Kill for the dead,' answered Vipus.
THE ASSAULT BEGAN in a flurry of smoke as the World Eaters surged up the lower slopes of the breach with roaring blasts of their jump packs. The wall head and the breach itself were wreathed in explosions from the Titans' bombardment, and the idea that something could live through such a storm of shot and shell seemed impossible to Loken.
As the World Eaters powered up the slopes of rubble, Loken and his warriors clambered over the twisted, blackened spars of iron that had been blasted from the walls above. They moved and fired, adding their own volleys of gunfire into the breach before the assaulters reached their targets.
The slope was steep, but eminently climbable, and they were making steady progress. Occasional shots and las blasts ricocheted from the rocks or their armour, but at this range, nothing could wound them.
Five hundred metres to his left, Loken saw Torgaddon leading Second Company up the slopes in the wake of the World Eaters, both forces of the Sons of Horus protecting the vulnerable flanks of the assaulters and ready with heavier weapons to secure the breach.
Behind the Astartes, the soldiers of Hektor Varvarus's Byzant Janizars - wearing long cream greatcoats with gold frogging - followed in disciplined ranks. To march into battle in ceremonial dress uniforms seemed ridiculous to Loken, but Varvarus had declared that he and his men were not going to enter the citadel looking less than their best.
Loken turned from the splendid sight of the marching soldiers as he heard a deep, bass rumbling that seemed to come from the ground itself. Powdered rubble and rocks danced as the vibrations grew stronger still and Loken knew that something was terribly wrong. Ahead, he could see Angron and the World Eaters reaching the crest of the breach. Blazing columns of smoke surrounded Angron, and Loken heard the mighty primarch's bellowing cry of triumph even over the thunderous explosions of battle.
The rumbling grew louder and more violent, and Loken had to grip onto a rusted spar of rebar to hold himself in place as the ground continued to shake as though in the grip of a mighty earthquake. Great cracks split the ground and plumes of fire shot from them.
'What's happening?' he shouted over the noise.
No one answered and Loken fell as the top of the breach suddenly exploded in a sheet of flame that reached hundreds of metres into the air. Rocks and metal were hurled skywards as the top of the wall vanished in a massive seismic detonation.
Like the bunkers in the cities, the Brotherhood destroyed what they could not hold, and Loken's reactive senses shut down briefly with the overload of light and noise. Twisted rubble and wreckage slammed down around them, and Loken heard screams of pain and the crack of splintering armour as scores of his men were pulverised by the storm of boulders.
Dust and matter filled the air, and when Loken felt safe enough to move, he saw in horror that the entire crest of the breach had been destroyed.
Angron and the World Eaters were gone, buried beneath the wreckage of a mountain.
TORGADDON SAW THE same thing, and picked himself up from the ground. He shouted at his warriors to get to their feet and charged towards the ruin of the breach. Filthy, dust-covered warriors clambered from the wreckage and followed their captain as he led them onwards and upwards to what might be their deaths. Torgaddon knew that such a course of action was probably suicidal, but he had seen Angron buried beneath the mountain, and retreating was not an option.
He activated the blade of his chainsword and scrambled up the slopes with the feral cry of the Sons of Horus bursting from his lips.
'Lupercal! Lupercal!' he screamed as he charged.
LOKEN WATCHED HIS brother rise from the aftermath of the explosion like a true hero, and began his own charge towards the breach. He knew that there was every chance a second seismic mine was buried in the breach, but the sight of a primarch brought low by the Brotherhood obliterated all thoughts of any tactical response, except charging.
'Warriors of the Tenth!' he roared. 'With me! Lupercal!'
Loken's surviving warriors pulled themselves from the rubble and followed Loken with the Warmaster's name echoing from the mountains. Loken sprang from rock to rock, clambering uphill faster than he would have believed possible, his anger hot and bright. He was ready to wreak vengeance upon the Brotherhood for what they had done in the name of spite, and nothing was going to stop him.
Loken knew that he had to reach the breach before the Brotherhood realised that its strategy had not killed all the attackers, and he kept moving upwards at a fast pace, using all the increased muscle power his armour afforded him. A storm of gunfire flashed from above: las shots and solid rounds spanging from the rocks and metal rabble. A heavy shell clipped his shoulder guard, spinning him around, but Loken shrugged off the impact and charged on.
The roaring tide of Astartes warriors climbed the breach, the last rays of the morning's sun glinting from the brilliant green of their armour. To see so many warriors in battle was magnificent, an unstoppable wave of death that would sweep away all resistance in a storm of gunfire and blades.
All tactics were moot now, the sight of Angron's fall robbing each and every warrior of any sense of restraint. Loken could see the gleaming silver armour of Brotherhood warriors as they climbed to what was left of the breach, dragging bipod-mounted heavy weapons with them.
'Bolters!' he shouted. 'Open fire!'
The crest of the breach vanished as a spray of bolter rounds impacted. Sparks and chunks of flesh flew as Astartes rounds found homes in flesh, and though many were firing from the hip, most were deadly accurate.
The noise was incredible, hundreds of bolter rounds ripping enemy warriors to shreds and skirling wolf howls ringing in his ears as the Astartes swept over the breach and reverted once again to the persona of the Luna Wolves. Loken threw aside his bolter, the magazine empty, and drew his chainsword, thumbing the activation stud as he vaulted the smoking rocks that had crushed Angron and the World Eaters.
Beyond the walls of the Iron Citadel was a wide esplanade, its surface strewn with gun positions and coils of razor wire. A shell-battered keep was built into the mountainside, but its gates were in pieces and black smoke poured from its gun ports. Brotherhood warriors were streaming back from the ruin of the walls towards these prepared positions, but they had horribly misjudged the timing of their fallback.
The Sons of Horus were already amongst them, hacking them down with brutal arcs of chainblades or gunning them down as they fled. Loken tore his way through a knot of Brotherhood warriors who turned to fight, killing three of them in as many strokes of his sword, and backhanding his elbow into the last opponent's head, smashing his skull to splinters.
All was pandemonium as the Sons of Horus ran amok within the precincts of the Iron Citadel, its defenders slaughtered in frantic moments of unimaginable violence. Loken killed and killed, revelling in the shedding of enemy blood and realising that, with this victory, the war would be over.
With that thought, the cold reality of what was happening penetrated the red fog of his rage. They had won, and already he could see the victory turning into a massacre.
'Garviel!' a desperate voice called over the suit-vox. 'Garviel, can you hear me?'
'Loud and dear, Tarik!' answered Loken.
'We have to stop this!' cried Torgaddon. 'We've won, it's over. Get a hold of your company.'
'Under |
revelling in the shedding of enemy blood and realising that, with this victory, the war would be over.
With that thought, the cold reality of what was happening penetrated the red fog of his rage. They had won, and already he could see the victory turning into a massacre.
'Garviel!' a desperate voice called over the suit-vox. 'Garviel, can you hear me?'
'Loud and dear, Tarik!' answered Loken.
'We have to stop this!' cried Torgaddon. 'We've won, it's over. Get a hold of your company.'
'Understood,' said Loken, pleased that Torgaddon had realised the same thing as he had.
Soon the inter-suit vox network was alive with barked orders to halt the attack that quickly passed down the chain of command.
By the time the echoes of battle were finally stilled, Loken could see that the Astartes had just barely managed to hold themselves from plunging into an abyss of barbarity, out of which they might never have climbed. Blood, bodies and the stink of battle filled the day, and as Loken looked up into the beautifully clear sky, he could see that the sun was almost at its zenith.
The final storm of the Iron Citadel had taken less than an hour, yet had cost the lives of a primarch, hundreds of the World Eaters, thousands of the Brotherhood, and the Emperor alone knew how many Sons of Horus.
The mass slaughter seemed such a terrible waste of life for what was a paltry prize: ruined cities, a battered and hostile populace, and a world that was sure to rebel as soon as it had the chance.
Was this world's compliance worth such bloodshed?
The majority of the Brotherhood warriors had died in those last enraged minutes, but many more were prisoners of the Sons of Horus, rather than their victims.
Loken removed his helmet and gulped in a lungful of the clear air, its crispness tasting like the sweetest wine after the recycled air of his armour. He made his way through the wreckage of battle, the torn remnants of enemy warriors strewn like offal throughout the esplanade.
He found Torgaddon on his knees, also with his helmet off and breathing deeply. His friend looked up as Loken approached and smiled weakly. 'Well... we did it.'
'Yes,' agreed Loken sadly, looking around at the crimson spoils of victory. 'We did, didn't we?'
Loken had killed thousands of enemies before, and he would kill thousands more in wars yet to be fought, but something in the savagery of this battle had soured his notion of triumph.
The two captains turned as they heard the tramp of booted feet behind them, seeing the lead battalions of the Byzant Janizars finally climbing into the citadel. Loken could see the horror on the soldiers' faces and knew that the glory of the Astartes would be tarnished for every man who set foot inside.
'Varvarus is here,' said Loken.
'Just in time, eh?' said Torgaddon. 'This'll sweeten his mood towards us.'
Loken nodded and simply watched as the richly appointed command units of the Byzant Janizars entered the citadel, their tall blue banners snapping in the wind, and brilliantly decorated officers scanning the battlefield.
Hektor Varvarus stood at the crest of the breach and surveyed the scene of carnage, his horrified expression easy to read even from a distance. Loken felt his resentment towards Varvarus swell as he thought, this is what we were created for, what else did you expect?
'Looks like their leaders are here to surrender to Varvarus,' said Torgaddon, pointing to a long column of beaten men and women marching from the smoking ruins of the inner keep, red and silver banners carried before them. A hundred warriors in battered plate armour marched with them, their long barrelled weapons shouldered and pointed at the ground.
Robed magos and helmeted officers led the column, their faces downcast and resigned to their capitulation. With the storm of the esplanade, the citadel was lost and the leaders of the Brotherhood knew it.
'Come on,' said Loken. 'This is history. Since there are no remembrancers here, we might as well be part of this.'
'Yes,' agreed Torgaddon, pushing himself to his feet. The two captains drew parallel with the column of beaten Brotherhood warriors, and soon every one of the Sons of Horus who had survived the escalade surrounded them.
Loken watched Varvarus climb down the rearward slope of the breach and make his way towards the leaders of the Auretian Technocracy. He bowed formally and said, 'My name is Lord Commander Hektor Varvarus, commander of the Emperor's armies in the 63rd Expedition. To whom do I have the honour of addressing?'
An elderly warrior in gold plate armour stepped from the ranks of men, his black and silver heraldry carried on a personal banner pole by a young lad of no more than sixteen years.
'I am Ephraim Guardia,' he said, 'Senior Preceptor of the Brotherhood Chapter Command and Castellan of the Iron Citadel.'
Loken could see the tension on Guardia's face, and knew that it was taking the commander all his self-control to remain calm in the face of the massacre he had just witnessed.
'Tell me,' said Guardia. 'Is this how all wars are waged in your Imperium?'
'War is a harsh master, senior preceptor,' answered Varvarus. 'Blood is spilled and lives are lost. I feel the sorrow of your losses, but excess of grief for the dead is madness. It is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.'
'Spoken like a tyrant and a killer,' snarled Guardia, and Varvarus bristled with anger at his defeated foe's lack of etiquette.
'Given time, you will see that war is not what the Imperium stands for,' promised Varvarus. 'The Emperor's Great Crusade is designed to bring reason and illumination to the lost strands of mankind. I promise you that this... unpleasantness will soon be forgotten as we go forward into a new age of peace.'
Guardia shook his head and reached into a pouch at his side. 'I think you are wrong, but you have beaten us and my opinion means nothing any more.'
He unrolled a sheet of parchment and said, 'I shall read our declaration to you, Varvarus. All my officers have signed it and it will stand as a testament to our attempts to defy you.'
Clearing his throat, Guardia began to read.
'We fought your treacherous Warmaster to preserve our way of life and to resist the yoke of Imperial rule. It was, in truth, not for glory, nor riches, nor for honour that we fought, but for freedom, which no honest man could ever wish to give up. However, the greatest of our warriors cannot stand before the savagery of your war, and rather than see our culture exterminated, we surrender this citadel and our worlds to you. May you rule in peace more kindly than you make war.'
Before Varvarus could react to the senior preceptor's declaration, the rubble behind him shifted and groaned, cracks splitting the rock and metal as something vast and terrible heaved upwards from beneath the ground.
At first Loken thought that it was the second seismic charge he had feared, but then he saw that these tremors were far more localised. Janizars scattered, and men shouted in alarm as more debris clattered from the breach. Loken gripped the hilt of his sword as he saw many of the Brotherhood warriors reach for their weapons.
Then the breach exploded with a grinding crack of ruptured stone, and something immense and red erupted from the ground with a bestial roar of hate and bloodlust. Soldiers fell away from the red giant, hurled aside by the violence of his sudden appearance.
Angron towered over them, bloody and enraged, and Loken marvelled that he could still be alive after thousands of tonnes of rock had engulfed him. But Angron was a primarch and what - save for an anathame - could lay one such as him low?
'Blood for Horus!' shouted Angron and leapt from the breach.
The primarch landed with a thunderous impact that split the stone beneath him, his chain-glaive sweeping out and cleaving the entire front rank of Brotherhood warriors to bloody rain. Ephraim Guardia died in the first seconds of Angron's attack, his body cloven through the chest with a single blow.
Angron howled in battle lust as he hacked his way through the Brotherhood with great, disembowelling sweeps of his monstrous, roaring weapon. The madness of his slaughter was terrifying, but the warriors of the Brotherhood were not about to die without a fight.
Loken shouted, 'No! Stop!' but it was already too late. The remainder of the Brotherhood shouldered their weapons and began firing on the Sons of Horus and the rampaging primarch.
'Open fire!' shouted Loken, knowing he had no choice.
Gunfire tore through the ranks of the Brotherhood, the point-blank firefight a lethal firestorm of explosive bolter rounds. The noise was deafening and horrifyingly brief as the Brotherhood were mercilessly gunned down by the Astartes or hacked apart by Angron.
Within seconds, it was over and the last remnants of the Brotherhood were no more.
Desperate cries for medics sounded from the command units of the Janizars, and Loken saw a group of bloody soldiers on their knees around a fallen officer, his cream greatcoat drenched in blood. The gold of his medals gleamed in the cold midday light and as one of the kneeling soldiers shifted position, Loken realised the identity of the fallen man.
Hektor Varvarus lay in a spreading pool of blood, and even from a distance, Loken could see that there would be no saving him. The man's body had been ripped open from the inside, the gleaming ends of splintered ribs jutting from his chest where it was clear a bolter round had detonated within him.
Loken wept to see this fragile peace broken, and dropped his sword in disgust at what had happened and at what he had been forced to do. With Angron's senseless attack, the lives of his warriors had been threatened, and he'd had no other choice but to order the attack.
Still, he regretted it.
The Brotherhood had been honourable foes and the Sons of Horus had butchered them like cattle. Angron stood in the midst of the carnage, his glaive spr |
was clear a bolter round had detonated within him.
Loken wept to see this fragile peace broken, and dropped his sword in disgust at what had happened and at what he had been forced to do. With Angron's senseless attack, the lives of his warriors had been threatened, and he'd had no other choice but to order the attack.
Still, he regretted it.
The Brotherhood had been honourable foes and the Sons of Horus had butchered them like cattle. Angron stood in the midst of the carnage, his glaive spraying the warriors nearest him with spatters of blood from the roaring chainblade.
The Sons of Horus cheered in praise of the World Eaters' primarch, but Loken felt soul sick at such a barbaric sight.
'That was no way for warriors to die,' said Torgaddon. 'Their deaths shame us all.'
Loken didn't answer. He couldn't.
TWENTY-ONE
Illumination
WITH THE FALL of the Iron Citadel, the war on Aureus was over. The Brotherhood was destroyed as a fighting force and though there were still pockets of resistance to be mopped up, the fighting was as good as over. Casualties on both sides had been high, most especially in the Army units of the Expedition. Hektor Varvarus was brought back to the fleet with due reverence and his body returned to space in a ceremony attended by the highest-ranking officers of the Expeditions.
The Warmaster himself spoke the lord commander's eulogy, the passion and depths of his sorrow plain to see.
'Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion,' the Warmaster had said of Lord Commander Varvarus. 'It is only when we look now and see his success that men will say that it was good fortune. It was not. We lost thousands of our best warriors that day and I feel the loss of every one. Hektor Varvarus was a leader who knew that to march with the gods, one must wait until he hears their footsteps sounding through events, and then leap up and grasp the hem of their robes.
'Varvarus is gone from us, but he would not want us to pause in mourning, for history is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast to it is to be swept aside and that, my friends, will never happen. Not while I am Warmaster. Those men who fought and bled with Varvarus shall have this world to stand sentinel over, so that his sacrifice will never be forgotten.'
Other speakers had said their farewells to the lord commander, but none with the Warmaster's eloquence. True to his word, Horus ensured that Army units that had been loyal to Varvarus were appointed to minister the worlds he had died to make compliant.
A new Imperial commander was installed, and the martial power of the fleet began the time-consuming process of regrouping in preparation for the next stage of the Crusade.
KARKASY'S BILLET STANK of ink and printing fumes, the crude, mechanical bulk printer working overtime to print enough copies of the latest edition of The Truth is All We Have. Though his output had been less prolific of late, the Bondsman number 7 box was nearly empty. Ignace Karkasy remembered wondering, a lifetime ago it seemed, whether or not the lifespan of his creativity could be measured in the quantity of paper he had left to fill. Such thoughts seemed meaningless, given the powerful desire to write that was upon him these days.
He sat on the edge of his cot bed, the last remaining place for him to sit, penning the latest scurrilous piece of verse for his pamphlet and humming contentedly to himself. Papers filled the billet, strewn across the floor, tacked upon the walls or piled on any surface flat enough to hold them. Scribbled notes, abandoned odes and half-finished poems filled the space, but such was the fecundity of his muse that he didn't expect to exhaust it any time soon.
He'd heard that the war with the Auretians was over, the final citadel having fallen to the Sons of Horus a couple of days ago in what the ship scuttlebutt was already calling the White Mountains Massacre. He didn't yet know the full story, but several sources he'd cultivated over the ten months of the war would surely garner him some juicy titbits.
He heard a curt knock on his door-shutter and shouted, 'Come in!'
Karkasy kept on writing as the shutter opened, too focused on his words to waste a single second of his time.
'Yes?' he said, 'What can I do for you?'
No answer was forthcoming, so Karkasy looked up in irritation to see an armoured warrior standing mutely before him. At first, Karkasy felt a thrill of panic, seeing the man's longsword and the hard, metallic gleam of a bolstered pistol, but he relaxed as he saw that the man was Petronella Vivar's bodyguard - Maggard, or something like that.
'Well?' he asked again. 'Was there something you wanted?'
Maggard said nothing and Karkasy remembered that the man was mute, thinking it foolish that anyone would send someone who couldn't speak as a messenger.
'I can't help you unless you can tell me why you're here,' said Karkasy, speaking slowly to ensure that the man understood.
In response, Maggard removed a folded piece of paper from his belt and held it out with his left hand. The warrior made no attempt to move closer to him, so with a resigned sigh, Karkasy put aside the Bondsman and pushed his bulky frame from the bed.
Karkasy picked his way through the piles of notebooks and took the proffered paper. It was a sepia coloured papyrus, as was produced in the Gyptian spires, with crosshatched patterning throughout. A little gaudy for his tastes, but obviously expensive.
'So who might this be from?' asked Karkasy, before again remembering that this messenger couldn't speak. He shook his head with an indulgent smile, unfolded the papyrus and cast his eyes over the note's contents.
He frowned as he recognised the words as lines from his own poetry, dark imagery and potent symbolism, but they were all out of sequence, plucked from a dozen different works.
Karkasy reached the end of the note and his bladder emptied in terror as he realised the import of the message, and its bearer's purpose.
PETRONELLA PACED THE confines of her stateroom, impatient to begin transcribing the latest thoughts of her bodyguard. The time Maggard had spent with the Astartes had been most fruitful, and she had already learned much that would otherwise have been hidden from her.
Now a structure suggested itself, a tragic tale told in reverse order that opened on the primarch's deathbed, with a triumphal coda that spoke of his survival and of the glories yet to come. After all, she didn't want to confine herself to only one book.
She even had a prospective tide, one that she felt conveyed the correct gravitas of her subject matter, yet also included her in its meaning.
Petronella would call this masterpiece, In The Footsteps of Gods, and had already taken its first line - that most important part of the tale where her reader was either hooked or left cold - from her own terrified thoughts at the moment of the Warmaster's collapse.
I was there the day that Horus fell.
It had all the right tonal qualities, leaving the reader in no doubt that they were about to read something profound, yet keeping the end of the story a jealously guarded secret.
Everything was coming together, but Maggard was late in returning from his latest foray into the world of the Astartes and her patience was wearing thin. She had already reduced Babeth to tears in her impatient frustration, and had banished her maidservant to the tiny chamber that served as her sleeping quarters.
She heard the sound of the door to her stateroom opening in the receiving room, and marched straight through to reprimand Maggard for his tardiness.
'What time do you call...' she began, but the words trailed off as she saw that the figure standing before her wasn't Maggard.
It was the Warmaster.
He was dressed in simple robes and looked more magnificent than she could ever remember seeing him. A fierce anima surrounded him, and she found herself unable to speak as he looked up, the full force of his personality striking her.
Standing at the door behind him was the hulking form of First Captain Abaddon. Horus looked up as she entered and nodded to Abaddon, who closed the door at his back.
'Miss Vivar,' said the Warmaster. It took an effort of will on Petronella's part for her to find her voice.
'Yes... my lord,' she stammered, horrified at the mess of her stateroom and that the Warmaster should see it so untidy. She must remember to punish Babeth for neglecting her duties. 'I... that is, I wasn't expecting...'
Horus held up his hand to soothe her concerns and she fell silent.
'I know I have been neglectful of you,' said the Warmaster. 'You have been privy to my innermost thoughts and I allowed the concerns of the war against the Technocracy to command my attention.'
'My lord, I never dreamed you gave me such consideration,' said Petronella.
'You would be surprised,' smiled Horus. 'Your writing goes well?'
'Very well, my lord,' said Petronella. 'I have been prolific since last we met.'
'May I see?' asked Horus.
'Of course,' she said, thrilled that he should take an interest in her work. She had to force herself to walk, not run, into her writing room, indicating the papers stacked on her escritoire.
'It's all a bit of jumble, but everything I've written is here,' beamed Petronella. 'I would be honoured if you would critique my work. After all, who is more qualified?'
'Quite,' agreed Horus, following her to the escritoire and taking up her most recent output. His eyes scanned the pages, reading and digesting the contents quicker than any mortal man ever could.
She searched his face for any reaction to her words, but he was as unreadable as a statue, and she began to worry that he disapproved.
Eventually, he placed the papers back on the escritoire and said, 'It is very good. You are a talented documentarist.'
'Thank you, my lord,' she gushed, the power of his praise like a tonic in her veins.
'Yes,' said H |
re and taking up her most recent output. His eyes scanned the pages, reading and digesting the contents quicker than any mortal man ever could.
She searched his face for any reaction to her words, but he was as unreadable as a statue, and she began to worry that he disapproved.
Eventually, he placed the papers back on the escritoire and said, 'It is very good. You are a talented documentarist.'
'Thank you, my lord,' she gushed, the power of his praise like a tonic in her veins.
'Yes,' said Horus, his voice cold. 'It's almost a shame that no one will ever read it.'
MAGGARD REACHED UP and grabbed the front of Karkasy's robe, spinning him around, and hooking his arm around the poet's neck. Karkasy struggled in the powerful grip, helpless against Maggard's superior strength.
'Please!' he gasped, his terror making his voice shrill. 'No, please don't!'
Maggard said nothing, and Karkasy heard the snap of leather as the warrior's free hand popped the stud on his holster. Karkasy fought, but he could do nothing, the crushing force of Maggard's arm around his neck robbing him of breath and blurring his vision.
Karkasy wept bitter tears as time slowed. He heard the slow rasp of the pistol sliding from its holster and the harsh click as the hammer was drawn back.
He bit his tongue. Bloody foam gathered in the corners of his mouth. Snot and tears mingled on his face. His legs scrabbled on the floor. Papers flew in all directions.
Cold steel pressed into his neck, the barrel of Maggard's pistol jammed tight under his jaw.
Karkasy smelled the gun oil.
He wished...
The hard bang of the pistol shot echoed deafeningly in the cramped billet.
AT FIRST, PETRONELLA wasn't sure she'd understood what the Warmaster meant. Why wouldn't people be able to read her work? Then she saw the cold, merciless light in Horus's eyes.
'My lord, I'm not sure I understand you,' she said, haltingly.
'Yes you do.'
'No...' she whispered, backing away from him.
The Warmaster followed her, his steps slow and measured. 'When we spoke in the apothecarion I let you look inside Pandora's Box, Miss Vivar, and for that I am truly sorry. Only one person has a need to know the things in my head, and that person is me. The things I have seen and done, the things I am going to do...'
'Please, my lord,' said Petronella, backing out of her writing room and into the receiving room. 'If you are unhappy with what I've written, it can be revised, edited. I would give you approval on everything, of course.'
Horus shook his head, drawing closer to her with every step.
Petronella felt her eyes fill with tears and she knew that this couldn't be happening. The Warmaster would not be trying to scare her. They must be playing some cruel joke on her. The idea of the Astartes making a fool of her stung Petronella's wounded pride and the part of her that had snapped angrily at the Warmaster upon their first meeting rose to the surface.
'I am the Palatina Majoria of House Carpinus and I demand that you respect that!' she cried, standing firm before the Warmaster. 'You can't scare me like this.'
'I'm not trying to scare you,' said Horus, reaching out to hold her by the shoulders.
'You're not?' asked Petronella, his words filling her with relief. She'd known that this couldn't be right, that there had to be some mistake.
'No,' said Horus, his hands sliding towards her neck. 'I am illuminating you.'
Her neck broke with one swift snap of his wrist.
THE MEDICAE CELL was cramped, but clean and well maintained. Mersadie Oliton sat by the bed and wept softly to herself, tears running freely down her coal dark skin. Kyril Sindermann sat with her and he too shed tears as he held the hand of the bed's occupant.
Euphrati Keeler lay, unmoving, her skin pale and smooth, with a sheen to it that made it look like polished ceramic. Since she had faced the horror in Archive Chamber Three, she had lain unmoving and unresponsive in this medicae bay.
Sindermann had told Mersadie what had happened and she found herself torn between wanting to believe him and calling him delusional. His talk of a daemon and of Euphrati standing before it with the power of the Emperor pouring through her was too fantastical to be true... wasn't it? She wondered if he'd told anyone else of it.
The apothecaries and medics could find nothing physically wrong with Euphrati Keeler, save for the eagle shaped burn on her hand that refused to fade. Her vital signs were stable and her brain wave activity registered normal: no one could explain it and no one had any idea how to wake her from this coma-like state.
Mersadie came to visit Euphrati as often as she could, but she knew that Sindermann came every day, spending several hours at a time with her. Sometimes they would sit together, talking to Euphrati, telling her of the events happening on the planets below, the battles that had been fought, or simply passing on ship gossip.
Nothing seemed to reach the imagist, and Mersadie sometimes wondered if it might not be a kindness to let her die. What could be worse for a person like Euphrati than being trapped by her own flesh, with no ability to reason, to communicate or express herself.
She and Sindermann had arrived together today and each instantly knew that the other had been crying. The news of Ignace Karkasy's suicide had hit them all hard and Mersadie still couldn't believe how he could have done such a thing.
A suicide note had been found in his billet, which was said to have been composed in verse. It spoke volumes of Ignace's enormous conceit that he made his last goodbye in his own poetry.
They had wept for another lost soul, and then they sat on either side of Euphrati's bed, holding each other's and Keeler's hands as they spoke of better times.
Both turned as they heard a soft knock behind them.
A thin faced man wearing the uniform of the Legio Mortis and an earnest face stood framed in the doorway.
Behind him, Mersadie could see that the corridor was filled with people.
'Is it alright if I come in?' he asked.
Mersadie Oliton said, 'Who are you?'
'My name's Titus Cassar, Moderati Primus of the Dies Irae. I've come to see the saint.'
THEY MET IN the observation deck, the lighting kept low and the darkness of space leavened only by me reflected glare of the planets they had just conquered. Loken stood with his palm against the armoured viewing bay, believing that something fundamental had happened to the Sons of Horus on Aureus, but not knowing what.
Torgaddon joined him moments later and Loken welcomed him with a brotherly embrace, grateful to have so loyal a comrade.
They stood in silence for some time, each lost in thought as they watched the defeated planets turn in space below them. The preparations for departure were virtually complete and the fleet was ready to move on, though neither warrior had any idea of where they were going.
Eventually Torgaddon broke the silence, 'So what do we do?'
'I don't know, Tarik,' replied Loken. 'I really don't.'
'I thought not,' said Torgaddon, holding up a glass test tube with something in it that reflected soft light with a golden gleam. 'This won't help then.'
'What is it?' asked Loken.
'These,' said Torgaddon, 'are the bolt round fragments removed from Hektor Varvarus.'
'Bolt round fragments? Why do you have them?'
'Because they're ours.'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean they're ours,' repeated Torgaddon. 'The bolt that killed the lord commander came from an Astartes bolter, not from one of the Brotherhood's guns.'
Loken shook his head. 'No, there must be some mistake.'
'There's no mistake. Apothecary Vaddon tested the fragments himself. They're ours, no question.'
'You think Varvarus caught a stray round?'
Torgaddon shook his head. 'The wound was dead centre, Garviel. It was an aimed shot.'
Loken and Torgaddon both understood the implications, and Loken felt his melancholy rise at the thought of Varvarus having been murdered by one of their own.
Neither spoke for a long moment. Then Loken said, 'In the wake of such deceit and destruction shall we despair, or is faith and honour the spur to action?'
'What's that?' asked Torgaddon.
'It's part of a speech I read in a book that Kyril Sindermann gave me,' said Loken. 'It seemed appropriate given where we find ourselves now.'
'That's true enough,' agreed Torgaddon.
'What are we becoming, Tarik?' asked Loken. 'I don't recognise our Legion any more. When did it change?'
'The moment we encountered the Technocracy.'
'No,' said Loken. 'I think it was on Davin. Nothing's been the same since then. Something happened to the Sons of Horus there, something vile and dark and evil.'
'Do you realise what you're saying?'
'I do,' replied Loken. 'I'm saying that we have to uphold the truth of the Imperium of Mankind, no matter what evil may assail it.'
Torgaddon nodded. 'The Mournival oath.'
'Evil has found its way into our Legion, Tarik, and it's up to us to cut it out. Are you with me?' asked Loken.
'Always,' said Torgaddon, and the two warriors shook hands in the old Terran way.
THE WARMASTER'S SANCTUM was dimly lit, the cold glow of the bridge instruments the only source of illumination. The room was full, the core of the Warmaster's officers and commanders gathered around the table. The Warmaster sat at his customary place at the head of the table while Aximand and Abaddon stood behind him, their presence a potent reminder of his authority. Maloghurst, Regulus, Erebus, Princeps Turnet of the Legio Mortis, and various other, hand picked Army commanders filled out the rest of the gathering.
Satisfied that everyone who needed to be there had arrived, Horus leaned forwards and began to speak.
'My friends, we begin the next phase of our campaign among the stars soon and I know that you're all curious as to where we travel next. I will tell you, but before I do, I need every one of you to be aware of the magnitude of the task before us.'
He could see he had everyone's attention, |
f the Legio Mortis, and various other, hand picked Army commanders filled out the rest of the gathering.
Satisfied that everyone who needed to be there had arrived, Horus leaned forwards and began to speak.
'My friends, we begin the next phase of our campaign among the stars soon and I know that you're all curious as to where we travel next. I will tell you, but before I do, I need every one of you to be aware of the magnitude of the task before us.'
He could see he had everyone's attention, and continued. 'I am going to topple the Emperor from his Throne on Terra and take his place as the Master of Mankind.'
The enormity of his words was not lost on the assembled warriors and he gave them a few minutes to savour their weight, enjoying the look of alarm that crossed each man's face.
'Be not afraid, you are amongst friends,' chuckled Horus. 'I have spoken to you all individually over the course of the war with the Technocracy, but this is the first time you have been gathered and I have openly spoken of our destiny. You shall be my war council, those to whom I entrust the furthering of my plan.'
Horus rose from his seat, continuing to speak as he circled the table.
'Take a moment and look at the face of the man sitting next to you. In the coming fight, he will be your brother, for all others will turn from us when we make our intentions plain. Brother will fight brother and the fate of the galaxy will be the ultimate prize. We will face accusations of heresy and cries of treason, but they will fall from us because we are right. Make no mistake about that. We are right and the Emperor is wrong. He has sorely misjudged me if he thinks I will stand by while he abandons his realm in his quest for godhood, and leaves us amid the destruction of his rampant ambition.
'The Emperor commands the loyalty of millions of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Astartes warriors. His battle fleets reach across the stars from one side of the galaxy to the other. The 63rd Expedition cannot hope to match such numbers or resources. You all know this to be the case, but even so, we have the advantage.'
'What advantage is that?' asked Maloghurst, exactly on cue.
'We have the advantage of surprise. No one yet suspects us of having learned the Emperor's true plan, and in that lies our greatest weapon.'
'But what of Magnus?' asked Maloghurst urgently, 'What happens when Leman Russ returns him to Terra?'
Horus smiled. 'Calm yourself, Mal. I have already contacted my brother Russ and illuminated him with the full breadth of Magnus's treacherous use of daemonic spells and conjurations. He was... suitably angry, and I believe I have convinced him that to return Magnus to Terra would be a waste of time and effort.'
Maloghurst returned Horus's smile. 'Magnus will not leave Prospero alive.'
'No,' agreed Horus. 'He will not.'
'What of the other Legions?' asked Regulus. 'They will not sit idly by while we make war upon the Emperor. How do you propose to negate them?'
'A worthy question, adept,' said Horus, circling the table to stand at his shoulder. 'We are not without allies ourselves. Fulgrim is with us, and he now goes to win Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands over to our cause. Lorgar too understands the necessity of what must be done, and both bring the full might of their Legions to my banner.'
'That still leaves many others,' pointed out Erebus.
'Indeed it does, chaplain, but with your help, others may join us. Under the guise of the Chaplain Edict, we will send emissaries to each of the Legions to promulgate the formation of warrior lodges within them. From small beginnings we may win many to our cause.'
'That will take time,' said Erebus.
Horus nodded. 'It will, yes, but it will be worth it in the long term. In the meantime, I have despatched mobilisation orders to those Legions I do not believe we can sway. The Ultramarines will muster at Calth to be attacked by Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers, and the Blood Angels have been sent to the Signus Cluster, where Sanguinius shall be mired in blood. Then we make a swift, decisive stroke on Terra.'
'That still leaves other Legions,' said Regulus.
'I know,' answered Horus, 'but I have a plan that will remove them as a threat to us once and for all. I will lure them into a trap from which none will escape. I will set the Emperor's Imperium ablaze and from the ashes will arise a new Master of Mankind!'
'And where will you set this trap?' asked Maloghurst.
'A place not far from here,' said Horus. 'The Istvaan system.'
PART ONE
LONG KNIVES
ONE
The Emperor protects
Long night
The music of the spheres
'I WAS THERE,' said Titus Cassar, his wavering voice barely reaching the back of the chamber. 'I was there the day that Horus turned his face from the Emperor.'
His words brought a collective sigh from the Lectitio Divinitatus congregation and as one they lowered their heads at such a terrible thought. From the back of the chamber, an abandoned munitions hold deep in the under-decks of the Warmaster's flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, Kyril Sindermann watched and winced at Cassar's awkward delivery. The man was no iterator, that was for sure, but his words carried the sure and certain faith of someone who truly believed in the things he was saying.
Sindermann envied him that certainty.
It had been many months since he had felt anything approaching certainty.
As the Primary Iterator of the 63rd Expedition, it was Kyril Sindermann's job to promulgate the Imperial Truth of the Great Crusade, illuminating those worlds brought into compliance of the rule of the Emperor and the glory of the Imperium. Bringing the light of reason and secular truth to the furthest flung reaches of the ever-expanding human empire had been a noble undertaking.
But somewhere along the way, things had gone wrong.
Sindermann wasn't sure when it had happened. On Xenobia? On Davin? On Aureus? Or on any one of a dozen other worlds brought into compliance?
Once he had been known as the arch prophet of secular truth, but times had changed and he found himself remembering his Sahlonum, the Sumaturan philosopher who had wondered why the light of new science seemed not to illuminate as far as the old sorceries had.
Titus Cassar continued his droning sermon, and Sindermann returned his attention to the man. Tall and angular, Cassar wore the uniform of a moderati primus, one of the senior commanders of the Dies Irae, an Imperator-class Battle Titan. Sindermann suspected it was this rank, combined with his earlier friendship with Euphrati Keeler, that had granted his status within the Lectitio Divinitatus; status that he was clearly out of his depth in handling.
Euphrati Keeler: imagist, evangelist...
...Saint.
He remembered meeting Euphrati, a feisty, supremely self-confident woman, on the embarkation deck before they had left for the surface of Sixty-Three Nineteen, unaware of the horror they would witness in the depths of the Whisperhead Mountains.
Together with Captain Loken, they had seen the warp-spawned monstrosity Xavyer Jubal had been wrought into. Sindermann had struggled to rationalise what he had seen by burying himself in his books and learning to better understand what had occurred. Euphrati had no such sanctuary and had turned to the growing Lectitio Divinitatus cult for solace.
Venerating the Emperor as a divine being, the cult had grown from humble beginnings to a movement that was spreading throughout the Expedition fleets of the galaxy - much to the fury of the Warmaster. Where before the cult had lacked a focus, in Euphrati Keeler it had found its first martyr and saint.
Sindermann remembered the day when he had witnessed Euphrati Keeler stand before a nightmare horror from beyond the gates of the Empyrean and hurl it back from whence it had come. He had seen her bathed in killing fire and walk away unscathed, a blinding light streaming from the outstretched hand in which she had held a silver Imperial eagle. Others had seen it too, Ing Mae Sing, Mistress of the Fleet's astropaths and a dozen of the ship's arms men. Word had spread fast and Euphrati had become, overnight, a saint in the eyes of the faithful and an icon to cling to on the frontier of space.
He was unsure why he had even come to this meeting - not a meeting, he corrected himself, but a service, a religious sermon - for there was a very real danger of recognition. Membership of the Lectitio Divinitatus was forbidden and if he were discovered, it would be the end of his career as an iterator.
'Now we shall contemplate the word of the Emperor,' continued Cassar, reading from a small leather chapbook. Sindermann was reminded of the Bondsman Number 7 books in which the late Ignace Karkasy had written his scandalous poetry. Poetry that had, if Mersadie Oliton's suspicions were correct, caused his murder.
Sindermann thought that the writings of the Lectitio Divinitatus were scarcely less dangerous.
'We have some new faithful among us,' said Cassar, and Sindermann felt every eye in the chamber turn upon him. Used to facing entire continents' worth of audience, Sindermann was suddenly acutely embarrassed by their scrutiny.
'When people are first drawn to adoration of the Emperor, it is only natural that they should have questions,' said Cassar. 'They know the Emperor must be a god, for he has god-like powers over all human species, but aside from this, they are in the dark.'
This, at least, Sindermann agreed with.
'Most importantly, they ask, "If the Emperor truly is a god, then what does he do with his divine power?" We do not see His hand reaching down from the sky, and precious few of us are blessed with visions granted by Him. So does he not care for the majority of His subjects?
'They do not see the falsehood of such a belief. His hand lies upon all of us, and every one of us owes him our devotion. In the depths of the warp, the Emperor's mighty soul does battle with the dark things that would break through and co |
ly, they ask, "If the Emperor truly is a god, then what does he do with his divine power?" We do not see His hand reaching down from the sky, and precious few of us are blessed with visions granted by Him. So does he not care for the majority of His subjects?
'They do not see the falsehood of such a belief. His hand lies upon all of us, and every one of us owes him our devotion. In the depths of the warp, the Emperor's mighty soul does battle with the dark things that would break through and consume us all. On Terra, he creates wonders that will bring peace, enlightenment and the fruition of all our dreams to the galaxy. The Emperor guides us, teaches us, and exhorts us to become more than we are, but most of all, the Emperor protects.'
'The Emperor protects,' said the congregation in unison.
'The faith of the Lectitio Divinitatus, the Divine Word of the Emperor, is not an easy path to follow. Where the Imperial Truth is comforting in its rigorous rejection of the unseen and the unknown, the Divine Word requires the strength to believe in that which we cannot see. The longer we look upon this dark galaxy and live through the fires of its conquest, the more we realise that the Emperor's divinity is the only truth that can exist. We do not seek out the Divine Word; instead, we hear it, and are compelled to follow it. Faith is not a flag of allegiance or a theory for debate; it is something deep within us, complete and inevitable. The Lectitio Divinitatus is the expression of that faith, and only by acknowledging the Divine Word can we understand the path the Emperor has laid before mankind.'
Fine words, thought Sindermann: fine words, poorly delivered, but heartfelt. He could see that they had touched something deep inside those who heard it. An orator of skill could sway entire worlds with such words and force of belief.
Before Cassar could continue, Sindermann heard sudden shouts coming from the maze of corridors that led into the chamber. He turned as a panicked woman hurled the door behind him open with a dull clang of metal. In her wake, Sindermann could hear the hard bangs of bolter rounds.
The congregation started in confusion, looking to Cassar for an explanation, but the man was as nonplussed as they were.
'They've found you,' yelled Sindermann, realising what was happening.
'Everyone, get out,' shouted Cassar. 'Scatter!'
Sindermann pushed his way through the panicking crowd to the front of the chamber and towards Cassar. Some members of the congregation were producing guns, and from their martial bearing, Sindermann guessed they were Imperial Army troopers. Some were clearly ship's crewmen, and Sindermann knew enough of religion to know that they would defend their faith with violence if they had to.
'Come on, iterator. It's time we got out of here,' said Cassar, dragging the venerable iterator towards one of the many access corridors that radiated from the chamber.
Seeing the worry on his face, Cassar said, 'Don't worry, Kyril, the Emperor protects.'
'I certainly hope so,' replied Sindermann breathlessly.
Shots echoed from the ceiling and bright muzzle flashes strobed from the walls. Sindermann threw a glance over his shoulder and saw the bulky, armoured form of Astartes entering the chamber. His heart skipped a beat at the thought of being the enemy of such warriors.
Sindermann hurriedly followed Cassar into the access corridor and through a set of blast doors, their path twisting through the depths of the ship. The Vengeful Spirit was an immense vessel and he had no idea of the layout of this area, its walls grim and industrial compared to the magnificence of the upper decks.
'Do you know where you are going?' wheezed Sindermann, his breath coming in hot, agonised spikes and his ancient limbs already tiring from exertion he was scarcely used to.
'Engineering,' said Cassar. 'It's like a maze down there and we have friends in the engine crew. Damn, why can't they just let us be?'
'Because they are scared of you,' said Sindermann, 'just like I was.'
'AND YOU ARE certain of this?' asked Horus, Primarch of the Sons of Horus Legion and Warmaster of the Imperium, his voice echoing around the cavernous strategium of the Vengeful Spirit.
'As certain as I can be,' said Ing Mae Sing, the 63rd Expedition's Mistress of Astropaths. Her face was lined and drawn and her blind eyes were sunken within ravaged eye sockets. The demands of sending hundreds of telepathic communications across the galaxy weighed heavily on her skeletal frame. Astropathic acolytes gathered about her, robed in the same ghostly white as she and wordlessly whispering muttered doggerel of the ghastly images in their heads.
'How long do we have?' asked Horus.
'As with all things connected with the warp, it is difficult to be precise,' replied Ing Mae Sing.
'Mistress Sing,' said Horus coldly, 'precision is exactly what I need from you, now more than ever. The direction of the Crusade will change dramatically at this news, and if you are wrong it will change for the worse.'
'My lord, I cannot give you an exact answer, but I believe that within days the gathering warp storms will obscure the Astronomican from us,' replied Ing Mae Sing, ignoring the Warmaster's implicit threat. Though she could not see them, she could feel the hostile presence of the Justaerin warriors, the Sons of Horus First Company Terminators, lurking in the shadows of the strategium. 'Within days we shall hardly see it. Our minds can barely reach across the void and the Navigators claim that they will soon be unable to guide us true. The galaxy will be a place of night and darkness.'
Horus pounded a hand into his fist. 'Do you understand what you say? Nothing more dangerous could happen to the Crusade.'
'I merely state what I see, Warmaster.'
'If you are wrong...'
The threat was not idle - no threat the Warmaster uttered ever was. There had been a time when the Warmaster's anger would never have led to such an overt threat, but the violence in Horus's tone suggested that such a time had long passed.
'If we are wrong, we suffer. It has never been any different.'
'And my brother primarchs? What news from them?' asked Horus.
'We have been unable to confirm contact with the blessed Sanguinius,' replied Ing Mae Sing, 'and Leman Russ has sent no word of his campaign against the Thousand Sons.'
Horus laughed, a harsh Cthonic bark, and said, 'That doesn't surprise me. The Wolf has his head and he'll not easily be distracted from teaching Magnus a lesson. And the others?'
'Vulkan and Dorn are returning to Terra. The other primarchs are pursuing their current campaigns.'
'That is good at least,' said Horus, brow furrowing in thought, 'and what of the Fabricator General?'
'Forgive me, Warmaster, but we have received nothing from Mars. We shall endeavour to make contact by mechanical means, but this will take many months.'
'You have failed in this, Sing. Co-ordination with Mars is essential.'
Ing Mae Sing had telepathically broadcast a multitude of encoded messages between the Vengeful Spirit and Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal of the Mechanicum in the last few weeks. Although their substance was unknown to her, the emotions contained in them were all too clear. Whatever the Warmaster was planning, the Mechanicum was a key part of it.
Horus spoke again, distracting her from her thoughts. 'The other primarchs, have they received their orders?'
'They have, my lord,' said Ing Mae Sing, unable to keep the unease from her voice.
'The reply from Lord Guilliman of the Ultramarines was clean and strong. They are approaching the muster at Calth and report all forces are ready to depart.'
'And Lorgar?' asked Horus.
Ing Mae Sing paused, as if unsure how to phrase her next words.
'His message had residual symbols of... pride and obedience; very strong, almost fanatical. He acknowledges your attack order and is making good speed to Calth.'
Ing Mae Sing prided herself on her immense self-control, as befitted one whose emotions had to be kept in check lest they be changed by the influence of the warp, but even she could not keep some emotion from surfacing.
'Something bothers you, Mistress Sing?' asked Horus, as though reading her mind.
'My lord?'
'You seem troubled by my orders.'
'It is not my place to be troubled or otherwise, my lord,' said Ing Mae Sing neutrally.
'Correct,' agreed Horus. 'It is not, yet you doubt the wisdom of my course.'
'No!' cried Ing Mae Sing. 'It is just that it is hard not to feel the nature of your communication, the weight of blood and death that each message is wreathed in. It is like breathing fiery smoke with every message we send.'
'You must trust me, Mistress Sing,' said Horus. 'Trust that everything I do is for the good of the Imperium. Do you understand?'
'It is not my place to understand,' whispered the astropath. 'My role in the Crusade is to do the will of my Warmaster.'
'That is true, but before I dismiss you, Mistress Sing, tell me something.'
'Yes, my lord?'
'Tell me of Euphrati Keeler,' said Horus. 'Tell me of the one they are calling the saint.'
LOKEN STILL TOOK Mersadie Oliton's breath away. The Astartes were astonishing enough when arrayed for war in their burnished plate, but that sight had been nothing compared to what a Space Marine - specifically, Loken - looked like without his armour.
Stripped to the waist and wearing only pale fatigues and combat boots, Loken glistened with sweat as he ducked and wove between the combat appendages of a training servitor. Although few of the remembrancers had been privileged enough to witness an Astartes fight in battle, it was said that they could kill with their bare hands as effectively as they could with a bolter and chainsword. Watching Loken demolishing the servitor limb by limb, Mersadie could well believe it. She saw such power in his broad, over-muscled torso and such intense focus in his sharp grey eyes that she wondered that she was not repelled by Loken |
en the combat appendages of a training servitor. Although few of the remembrancers had been privileged enough to witness an Astartes fight in battle, it was said that they could kill with their bare hands as effectively as they could with a bolter and chainsword. Watching Loken demolishing the servitor limb by limb, Mersadie could well believe it. She saw such power in his broad, over-muscled torso and such intense focus in his sharp grey eyes that she wondered that she was not repelled by Loken. He was a killing machine, created and trained to deal death, but she couldn't stop watching and blink-clicking images of his heroic physique.
Kyril Sindermann sat next to her and leaned over, saying, 'Don't you have plenty of picts of Garviel already?'
Loken tore the head from the training servitor and turned to face them both, and Mersadie felt a thrill of anticipation. It had been too long since the conclusion of the war against the Technocracy and she had spent too few hours with the captain of the Tenth Company. As his documentarist, she knew that she had a paucity of material following that campaign, but Loken had kept himself to himself in the past few months.
'Kyril, Mersadie,' said Loken, marching past them towards his arming chamber. 'It is good to see you both.'
'I am glad to be here, Garviel,' said Sindermann. The primary iterator was an old man, and Mersadie was sure he had aged a great deal in the year since the fire that had nearly killed him in the Archive Halls of the Vengeful Spirit. 'Very glad. Mersadie was kind enough to bring me. I have had a spell of exertion recently, and I am not as fit as once I was. Time's winged chariot draws near.'
'A quote?' asked Loken. 'A fragment,' replied Sindermann. 'I haven't seen much of either of you recently,' observed Loken, smiling down at her. 'Have I been replaced by a more interesting subject?'
'Not at all,' she replied, 'but it is becoming more and more difficult for us to move around the ship. The edict from Maloghurst, you must have heard of it.'
'I have,' agreed Loken, lifting a piece of armour and opening a tin of his ubiquitous lapping powder, 'though I haven't studied the particulars.'
The smell of the powder reminded Mersadie of happier times in this room, recording the tales of great triumphs and wondrous sights, but she cast off such thoughts of nostalgia.
'We are restricted to our own quarters and the Retreat. We need permission to be anywhere else'
'Permission from whom?' asked Loken.
She shrugged. 'I'm not sure. The edict speaks of submitting requests to the Office of the Lupercal's Court, but no one's been able to get any kind of response from whatever that is.'
'That must be frustrating,' observed Loken and Mersadie felt her anger rise at such an obvious statement.
'Well of course it is! We can't record the Great Crusade if we can't interact with its warriors. We can barely even see them, let alone talk to them.'
'You made it here,' Loken pointed out.
'Well, yes. Following you around has taught me how to keep a low profile, Captain Loken. It helps that you train on your own now.'
Mersadie caught the hurt look in Loken's eye and instantly regretted her words. In previous times, Loken could often be found sparring with fellow officers, the smirking Sedirae, whose flinty dead eyes reminded Mersadie of an ocean predator, Nero Vipus or his Mournival brother, Tarik Torgaddon, but Loken fought alone now. By choice or by design, she did not know.
'Anyway,' continued Mersadie, 'it's getting bad for us. No one's speaking to us. We don't know what's going on any more.'
'We're on a war footing,' said Loken, putting down his armour and looking her straight in the eye. 'The fleet is heading for a rendezvous. We're joining up with Astartes from the other Legions. It'll be a complex campaign. Perhaps the Warmaster is just taking precautions.'
'No, Garviel,' said Sindermann, 'it's more than just that, and I know you well enough to know that you don't believe that either.'
'Really?' snarled Loken. 'You think you know me that well?'
'Well enough, Garviel,' nodded Sindermann, 'well enough. They're cracking down on us, cracking down hard. Not so everyone can see it, but it's happening. You know it too.'
'Do I?'
'Ignace Karkasy,' said Mersadie. Loken's face crumpled and he looked away, unable to hide the grief he felt for the dead Karkasy, the irascible poet who had been under his protection. Ignace Karkasy had been nothing but trouble and inconvenience, but he had also been a man who had dared to speak out and tell the unpalatable truths that needed to be told.
'They say he killed himself,' continued Sindermann, unwilling to let Loken's grief dissuade him from his course, 'but I've never known a man more convinced that the galaxy needed to hear what he had to say. He was angry at the massacre on the embarkation deck and he wrote about it. He was angry with a lot of things, and he wasn't afraid to speak of them. Now he is dead, and he's not the only one,'
'Not the only one?' asked Loken. 'Who else?'
'Petronella Vivar, that insufferable documentarist woman. They say she got closer to the Warmaster than anyone, and now she's gone too, and I don't think it was back to Terra.'
'I remember her, but you are on thin ice, Kyril. You need to be very clear what you are suggesting.'
Sindermann did not flinch from Loken's gaze and said, 'I believe that those who oppose the will of the Warmaster are being killed.'
The iterator was a frail man, but Mersadie had never been more proud to know him as he stood unbending before a warrior of the Astartes and told him something he didn't want to hear.
Sindermann paused, giving Loken ample time to refute his claims and remind them all that the Emperor had chosen Horus as the Warmaster because he alone could be trusted to uphold the Imperial Truth. Horus was the man to whom every Son of Horus had pledged his life a hundred times over.
But Loken said nothing and Mersadie's heart sank.
'I have read of it more times than I can remember,' continued Sindermann. 'The Uranan Chronicles, for example. The first thing those tyrants did was to murder those who spoke out against their tyranny. The Overlords of the Yndonesic Dark Age did the same thing. Mark my words, the Age of Strife was made possible when the doubting voices fell silent, and now it is happening here.'
'You have always taught temperance, Kyril,' said Loken, 'weighing up arguments and never leaping past them into guesswork. We're at war and we have plenty of enemies already without you seeking to find new ones. It will be very dangerous for you and you may not like what you find. I do not wish to see you come to any harm, either of you.'
'Ha! Now you lecture me, Garviel,' sighed Sindermann. 'So much has changed. You're not just a warrior any more, are you?'
'And you are not just an iterator?'
'No, I suppose not,' nodded Sindermann. 'An iterator promulgates the Imperial Truth, does he not? He does not pick holes in it and spread rumours. But Karkasy is dead, and there are... other things.'
'What things?' asked Loken. 'You mean Keeler?'
'Perhaps,' said Sindermann, shaking his head. 'I don't know, but I feel she is part of it.'
'Part of what?'
'You heard what happened in the Archive Chamber?'
'With Euphrati? Yes, there was a fire and she was badly hurt. She ended up in a coma.'
'I was there,' said Sindermann.
'Kyril,' said Mersadie, a note of warning in her voice.
'Please, Mersadie,' said Sindermann. 'I know what I saw.'
'What did you see?' asked Loken. 'Lies,' replied Sindermann, his voice hushed. 'Lies made real: a creature, something from the warp. Somehow Keeler and I brought it through the gates of the Empyrean with the Book of Lorgar. My own damn fault, too. It was... it was sorcery, the one thing that all these years I've been preaching is a lie, but it was real and standing before me as surely as I stand before you now. It should have killed us, but Euphrati stood against it and lived.'
'How?' asked Loken.
'That's the part where I run out of rational explanations, Garviel,' shrugged Sindermann.
'Well, what do you think happened?'
Sindermann exchanged a glance with Mersadie and she willed him not to say anything more, but the venerable iterator continued. 'When you destroyed poor Jubal, it was with your guns, but Euphrati was unarmed. All she had was her faith: her faith in the Emperor. I... I think it was the light of the Emperor that cast the horror back to the warp.'
Hearing Kyril Sindermann talk of faith and the light of the Emperor was too much for Mersadie.
'But Kyril,' she said, 'there must be another explanation. Even what happened to Jubal wasn't beyond physical possibilities. The Warmaster himself told Loken that the thing that took Jubal was some kind of xeno creature from the warp. I've listened to you teach about how minds have been twisted by magic and superstition and all the things that blind us to reality. That's what the Imperial Truth is. I can't believe that the Iterator Kyril Sindermann doesn't believe the Imperial Truth any more.'
'Believe, my dear?' said Sindermann, smiling bleakly and shaking his head. 'Maybe belief is the biggest lie. In ages past, the earliest philosophers tried to explain the stars in the sky and the world around them. One of them conceived of the notion that the universe was mounted on giant crystal spheres controlled by a giant machine, which explained the movements of the heavens. He was laughed at and told that such a machine would be so huge and noisy that everyone would hear it. He simply replied that we are born with that noise all around us, and that we are so used to hearing it that we cannot hear it at all.'
Mersadie sat beside the old man and wrapped her arms around him, surprised to find that he was shivering and his eyes were wet with tears.
'I'm starting to hear it, Garviel,' said Sindermann, his voice quavering. 'I can hear the music of the spheres.'
Mersadie watched |
hed at and told that such a machine would be so huge and noisy that everyone would hear it. He simply replied that we are born with that noise all around us, and that we are so used to hearing it that we cannot hear it at all.'
Mersadie sat beside the old man and wrapped her arms around him, surprised to find that he was shivering and his eyes were wet with tears.
'I'm starting to hear it, Garviel,' said Sindermann, his voice quavering. 'I can hear the music of the spheres.'
Mersadie watched Loken's face as he stared at Sindermann, seeing the quality of intelligence and integrity Sindermann had recognised in him. The Astartes had been taught that superstition was the death of the Empire and only the Imperial Truth was a reality worth fighting for.
Now, before her very eyes, that was unravelling.
'Varvarus was killed,' said Loken at last, 'deliberately, by one of our bolts.'
'Hektor Varvarus? The Army commander?' asked Mersadie. 'I thought that was the Auretians?'
'No,' said Loken, 'it was one of ours.'
'Why?' she asked.
'He wanted us... I don't know... hauled before a court martial, brought to task for the... killings on the embarkation deck. Maloghurst wouldn't agree. Varvarus wouldn't back down and now he is dead.'
'Then it's true,' sighed Sindermann. 'The naysayers are being silenced.'
'There are still a few of us left,' said Loken, quiet steel in his voice.
'Then we do something about it, Garviel,' said Sindermann. 'We must find out what has been brought into the Legion and stop it. We can fight it, Loken. We have you, we have the truth and there is no reason why we cannot-'
The sound that cut off Sindermann's voice was the door to the practice deck slamming open, followed by heavy metal-on-metal footsteps. Mersadie knew it was an Astartes even before the impossibly huge shadow fell over her. She turned to see the cursive form of Maloghurst behind her, robed in a cream tunic edged in sea green trim. The Warmaster's equerry, Maloghurst was known as 'the Twisted', as much for his labyrinthine mind as the horrible injuries that had broken his body and left him grotesquely malformed.
His face was thunder and anger seemed to bleed from him.
'Loken,' he said, 'these are civilians.'
'Kyril Sindermann and Mersadie Oliton are official rememberers of the Great Crusade and I can vouch for them,' said Loken, standing to face Maloghurst as an equal.
Maloghurst spoke with Horus's authority and Mersadie marvelled at what it must take to stand up to such a man.
'Perhaps you are unaware of the Warmaster's edict, captain,' said Maloghurst, the pleasant neutrality of his tone completely at odds with the tension that crackled between the two Astartes. 'These clerks and notaries have caused enough trouble; you of all people should understand that. There are to be no distractions, Loken, and no exceptions.'
Loken stood face-to-face with Maloghurst and for one sickening moment, Mersadie thought he was about to strike the equerry.
'We are all doing the work of the Great Crusade, Mal,' said Loken tightly. 'Without these men and women, it cannot be completed.'
'Civilians do not fight, captain, they only question and complain. They can record everything they desire once the war has been won and they can spread the Imperial Truth once we have conquered a population that needs to hear it. Until then, they are not a part of this Crusade.'
'No, Maloghurst,' said Loken. 'You're wrong and you know it. The Emperor did not create the primarchs and the Legions so they could fight on in ignorance. He did not set out to conquer the galaxy just for it to become another dictatorship.'
'The Emperor,' said Maloghurst, gesturing towards the door, 'is a long way from here.'
A dozen soldiers marched into the training halls and Mersadie recognised uniforms of the Imperial Army, but saw that their badges of unit and rank had been removed. With a start, she also recognised one face - the icy, golden-eyed features of Petronella Vivar's bodyguard. She recalled that his name was Maggard, and was amazed at the sheer size of the man, his physique bulky and muscled beyond that of the army soldiers who accompanied him. The exposed flesh of his muscles bore freshly healing scars and his face displayed a nascent gigantism similar to Loken's. He stood out amongst the uniformed Army soldiers, and his presence only lent credence to Sindermann's wild theory that Petronella Vivar's disappearance had nothing to do with her returning to Terra.
'Take the iterator and the remembrancer back to their quarters,' said Maloghurst. 'Post guards and ensure that there are no more breaches.'
Maggard nodded and stepped forwards. Mersadie tried to avoid him, but he was quick and strong, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and hauling her towards the door. Sindermann stood of his own accord and allowed himself to be led away by the other soldiers.
Maloghurst stood between Loken and the door. If Loken wanted to stop Maggard and his men, he would have to go through Maloghurst.
'Captain Loken,' called Sindermann as he was marched off the practice deck, 'if you wish to understand more, read the Chronicles of Ursh again. There you will find illumination.'
Mersadie tried to look back. She could see Loken beyond Maloghurst's robed form, looking like a caged animal ready to attack.
The door slammed shut, and Mersadie stopped struggling as Maggard led her and Sindermann back towards their quarters.
TWO
Perfection
Iterator
What we do best
PERFECTION. THE DEAD greenskins were a testament to it. Deep Orbital DS191 had been conquered in a matchless display of combat, fields of fire overlapping like dancers' fans, squads charging in to slaughter the orks that the guns could not finish. Squad by squad, room by room, the Emperor's Children had killed their way through the xenos holding the space station with all the handsome perfection of combat that Fulgrim had taught his Legion.
As the warriors of his company despatched any surviving greenskins, Saul Tarvitz removed his helmet and immediately recoiled at the stench. The greenskins had inhabited the orbital for some time and it showed. Fungal growths pulsed on the dark metal struts of the main control centre and crude shrines of weapons, armour and tribal fetishes were piled against the command posts. Above him, the transparent dome of the control centre looked onto the void of space.
The Callinedes system, a collection of Imperial worlds under attack by the greenskins was visible amid the froth of stars. Capturing the orbital back from the orks was the first stage in the Imperial relief of Callinedes, and the Emperor's Children and Iron Hands Legions would soon be storming into the enemy strongholds on Callinedes IV.
'What a stink,' said a voice behind Tarvitz, and he turned to see Captain Lucius, the finest swordsman of the Emperor's Children. His compatriot's armour was spattered black and his elegant sword still crackled with the blood sizzling on its blue-hot blade. 'Damned animals, they don't have the sense to roll over and die when you kill them.'
Lucius's face had once been perfectly flawless, an echo of Fulgrim's Legion itself, but now, after one too many jibes about how he looked more like a pampered boy than a warrior and the influence of Serena d'Angelus, Lucius had started to acquire scars, each one uniform and straight in a perfect grid across his face. No enemy blade had etched them into his face, for Lucius was far too sublime a warrior to allow a mere enemy to mark his features.
'They're tough, I'll give them that,' agreed Tarvitz.
'They may be tough, but there's no elegance to their fighting,' said Lucius. 'There's no sport in killing them.'
'You sound disappointed.'
'Well of course I am. Aren't you?' asked Lucius, jabbing his sword through a dead greenskin and carving a curved pattern on its back. 'How can we achieve ultimate perfection with such poor specimens to better ourselves against?'
'Don't underestimate the greenskins,' said Tarvitz. 'These animals invaded a compliant world and slaughtered all the troops we left to defend it. They have spaceships and weapons we don't understand, and they attack as if war is some kind of religion to them.'
He turned over the closest corpse - a massive brute with skin as tough as gnarled bark, its violent red eyes open and its undershot maw still grimacing with rage. Only the spread of entrails beneath suggested it was dead at all. Tarvitz could almost feel the jarring of his broadsword as he had plunged it through the creature's midriff and its tremendous strength as it had tried to force him onto his knees.
'You talk about them as if we need to understand them before we can kill them. They're just animals,' said Lucius with a sardonic laugh. 'You think about things too much. That's always been your problem, Saul, and it's why you'll never reach the dizzying heights I will achieve. Come on, just revel in the kill.'
Tarvitz opened his mouth to respond, but he kept his thoughts to himself as Lord Commander Eidolon strode into the control centre
'Fine work, Emperor's Children!' shouted Eidolon.
As one of Fulgrim's chosen, Eidolon had the honour of being within the tight circle of officers who surrounded the primarch and represented the Legion's finest artistry of war. Although it was not bred into him to dislike a fellow Astartes, Tarvitz had little respect for Eidolon. His arrogance did not befit a warrior of the Emperor's Children and the antagonism between them had only grown on the fields of Murder in the war against the megarachnids.
Despite Tarvitz's reservations, Eidolon carried a powerful natural authority about him, accentuated by magnificent armour with such an overabundance of gilding that the purple colours of the Legion were barely visible. 'The vermin didn't know what hit them!'
The Emperor's Children cheered in response. It had been a classic victory for the Legion: hard, fast and perfect.
The greenskins had been doomed f |
sm between them had only grown on the fields of Murder in the war against the megarachnids.
Despite Tarvitz's reservations, Eidolon carried a powerful natural authority about him, accentuated by magnificent armour with such an overabundance of gilding that the purple colours of the Legion were barely visible. 'The vermin didn't know what hit them!'
The Emperor's Children cheered in response. It had been a classic victory for the Legion: hard, fast and perfect.
The greenskins had been doomed from the start.
'Make ready,' shouted Eidolon, 'to receive your primarch.'
THE CARGO DECKS of the deep orbital were rapidly cleared of the greenskin dead by the Legion's menials for a portion of the Callinedes battle force to assemble. Tarvitz felt his pulse race at the thought of setting eyes on his beloved primarch once more. It had been too long since the Legion had fought alongside their leader. Hundreds of Emperor's Children in perfectly dressed ranks stood to attention, a magnificent army in purple and gold.
As magnificent as they were, they were but a poor imitation of the incredible warrior who was father to them all.
The primarch of the Emperor's Children was awe-inspiring, his face pale and sculpted, framed by a flowing mane of albino-white hair. His very presence was intoxicating and Tarvitz felt a fierce pride fill him at the sight of this incredible, wondrous warrior. Created to echo a facet of war, Fulgrim's art was the pursuit of perfection through battle and he sought it as diligently as an imagist strove for perfection through his picts. One shoulder of his golden armour was worked into a sweeping eagle's wing, the symbol of the Emperor's Children, and the symbolism was a clear statement of Legion pride.
The eagle was the Emperor's personal symbol, and he had granted the Emperor's Children alone the right to bear that same heraldry, symbolically proclaiming Fulgrim's warriors as his most adored Legion. Fulgrim wore a golden-hilted sword at his hip, said to have been a gift from the Warmaster himself, a clear sign of the bond of brotherhood between them.
The officers of the primarch's inner circle flanked him - Lord Commander Eidolon, Apothecary Fabius, Chaplain Charmosian and the massive dreadnought body of Ancient Rylanor. Even these heroes of the Legion were dwarfed by Fulgrim's physical size and his sheer charisma.
A line of heralds, chosen from among the young initiates who were soon to complete their training as Emperor's Children, fanned out in front of Fulgrim, playing a blaring fanfare on their golden trumpets to announce the arrival of the most perfect warrior in the galaxy. A thunderous roar of applause swelled from the assembled Emperor's Children as they welcomed their primarch back to his Legion.
Fulgrim waited graciously for the applause to die down. More than anything, Tarvitz aspired to be that awesome golden figure in front of them, though he knew he had already been designated as a line officer and nothing more. But Fulgrim's very presence filled him with the promise that he could be so much better if he was only given the chance. His pride in his Legion's prowess caught light as Fulgrim looked over the assembled warriors, and the primarch's dark eyes shone as he acknowledged each and every one of them.
'My brothers,' called Fulgrim, his voice lilting and golden, 'this day you have shown the accursed greenskin what it means to stand against the Children of the Emperor!'
More applause rolled around the cargo decks, but Fulgrim spoke over it, his voice easily cutting through the clamour of his warriors.
'Commander Eidolon has wrought you into a weapon against which the greenskin had no defence. Perfection, strength, resolve: these qualities are the cutting edge of this Legion and you have shown them all here today. This orbital is in Imperial hands once more, as are the others the greenskins had occupied in the futile hope of fending off our invasion.
'The time has come to press home this attack against the greenskins and liberate the Callinedes system. My brother primarch, Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands and I shall see to it that not a single alien stands upon land claimed in the name of the Crusade.'
Expectation was heavy in the air as the Legion waited for the order that would send them into battle with their primarch.
'But most of you, my brothers, will not be there,' said Fulgrim. The crushing disappointment Tarvitz felt was palpable, for the Legion had been sent to the Callinedes system with the assumption that it would lend its full strength to the destruction of the invading xenos.
'The Legion will be divided,' continued Fulgrim, raising his hands to stem the cries of woe and lamentation that his words provoked. 'I will lead a small force to join Ferrus Manus and his Iron Hands at Callinedes IV. The rest of the Legion will rendezvous with the Warmaster's 63rd Expedition at the Isstvan system. These are the orders of the Warmaster and of your primarch. Lord Commander Eidolon will lead you to Isstvan, and he will act in my stead until I can join you once more.'
Tarvitz glanced at Lucius, unable to read the expression on the swordsman's face at the news of their new orders. Conflicting emotions warred within Tarvitz: aching loss to be parted from his primarch once more, and excited anticipation at the thought of fighting alongside his comrades in the Sons of Horus.
'Commander, if you please,' said Fulgrim, gesturing Eidolon to step forwards.
Eidolon nodded and said, 'The Warmaster has called upon us to aid his Legion in battle once more. He recognises our skills and we welcome this chance to prove our superiority. We are to halt a rebellion in the Isstvan system, but we are not to fight alone. As well as his own Legion, the Warmaster has seen fit to deploy the Death Guard and World Eaters.'
A muttered gasp spread around the cargo bay at the mention of such brutal Legions.
Eidolon chuckled. 'I see some of you remember fighting alongside our brother Astartes. We all know what a grim and artless business war becomes in the hands of such men, so I say this is the perfect opportunity to show the Warmaster how the Emperor's chosen fight.'
The Legion cheered once more, and Tarvitz knew that whenever the Emperor's Children had a chance to prove their skill and artistry, especially to the other Legions, they took it. Fulgrim had turned pride into a virtue, and it drove each warrior of his Legion to heights of excellence that no other could match.
Torgaddon had called it arrogance and on the surface of Murder Tarvitz had tried to dissuade him of that notion, but hearing the boastful cries of the Emperor's Children around him, he wasn't sure that his friend had been wrong after all.
'The Warmaster has requested our presence immediately,' shouted Eidolon through the cheering. 'Although Isstvan is not far distant, the conditions in the warp have become more difficult, so we must make all haste. The strike cruiser Andronius will leave for Isstvan in four hours. When we arrive, it will be as ambassadors for our Legion, and when the battle is done the Warmaster will have witnessed war at its most magnificent.'
Eidolon saluted and Fulgrim led the applause before turning and taking his leave.
Tarvitz was stunned. To commit such a force of Astartes was rare and he knew that whatever foe they would face on Isstvan must be mighty indeed. Even the thrill of excitement he felt at this opportunity to prove themselves before the Warmaster was tempered by a sudden, nagging sense of unease.
'Four Legions?' asked Lucius, echoing his own thoughts as the squads fell out to make ready for the journey to join the 63rd Expedition. 'For one system? That's absurd!'
'Careful Lucius, you veer close to arrogance,' Tarvitz pointed out. 'Are you questioning the Warmaster's decision?'
'Questioning, no,' said Lucius defensively, 'but come on, even you have to admit it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut.'
'Possibly,' conceded Tarvitz, 'but for the Isstvan system to rebel, it must have been compliant at one stage.'
'What's your point?'
'My point, Lucius, is that the Crusade was supposed to be pushing ever outwards, conquering the galaxy in the name of the Emperor. Instead it is turning back on itself to patch up the cracks. I can only assume that the Warmaster wants to make some kind of grand gesture so show his enemies what rebellion means.'
'Ungrateful bastards,' spat Lucius. 'Once we're done with Isstvan they'll beg us to take them back!'
'With four Legions sent against them,' replied Tarvitz, 'I don't think there'll be many Isstvanians left for us to take back.'
'Come, Saul,' said Lucius walking ahead of him, 'did you lose your taste for battle against the greenskins?'
A taste for battle? Tarvitz had never considered such an idea. He had always fought because he wanted to become more than he was, to strive for perfection in all things. For longer than he could remember he had devoted himself to the task of emulating the warriors of the Legion who were more gifted and more worthy than he. He knew his station within the Legion, but knowing one's station was the first step to bettering it.
Watching Lucius's arrogant swagger, Tarvitz was reminded of how much his fellow captain loved battle. Lucius loved it without shame or apology, seeing it as the best way to express himself, weaving between his enemies and cutting a path of bloody ruin through them with his flashing sword. 'It just concerns me,' said Tarvitz. 'What does?' asked Lucius, turning back to face him. Tarvitz could see the hastily masked exasperation on the swordsman's face. He had seen that expression more and more on Lucius's scarred features recently, and it saddened him to know that the swordsman's ego and rampant ambition to rise within the ranks of the Emperor's Children would be the undoing of their friendship.
'That the Crusade has to repair itself at all. Compliance used to be the end of it. Not now.'
'Don't worry,' smil |
Tarvitz. 'What does?' asked Lucius, turning back to face him. Tarvitz could see the hastily masked exasperation on the swordsman's face. He had seen that expression more and more on Lucius's scarred features recently, and it saddened him to know that the swordsman's ego and rampant ambition to rise within the ranks of the Emperor's Children would be the undoing of their friendship.
'That the Crusade has to repair itself at all. Compliance used to be the end of it. Not now.'
'Don't worry,' smiled Lucius. 'Once a few of these rebel worlds get a decent killing this will all be over and the Crusade will go on.'
Rebel worlds... Whoever thought to hear such a phrase?
Tarvitz said nothing as he considered the sheer numbers of Astartes that would be converging on the Isstvan system. Hundreds of Astartes had fought on Deep Orbital DS191, but more than ten thousand Emperor's Children made up the Legion, most of whom would be journeying to Isstvan III. That in itself was enough for several war zones. The thought of four Legions arrayed in battle sent shivers up Tarvitz's spine.
What would be left of Isstvan when four Legions had marched through the system? Could any depths of rebellion really justify that?
'I just want victory,' said Tarvitz, the words sounding hollow, even to him.
Lucius laughed, but Tarvitz couldn't tell if it was in agreement or mockery.
BEING CONFINED TO his quarters was the most exquisite torture for Kyril Sindermann. Without the library of books he was used to consulting in Archive Chamber Three he felt quite adrift. His own library, though extensive by any normal standards, was a paltry thing next to the arcana that had been destroyed in the fire.
How many priceless, irreplaceable tomes had been lost in the wake of the warp beast he and Euphrati had conjured from the pages of the Book of Lorgar?
It did not bear thinking about and he wondered how much the future would condemn them for the knowledge that had been lost there. He had already filled thousands of pages with those fragments he could remember from the books he had consulted. Most of it was fragmentary and disjointed. He knew that the task of recalling everything he had read was doomed to failure, but he could no more conceive of giving up than he could stop his heart from beating.
His gift and the gift of the Crusade to the ages yet to come was the accumulated wisdom of the galaxy's greatest thinkers and warriors. With the broad shoulders of such knowledge to stand upon, who knew what dizzying heights of enlightenment the Imperium might reach?
His pen scratched across the page, recalling the philosophies of the Hellenic writers and their early debates on the nature of divinity. No doubt many would think it pointless to transcribe the writings of those long dead, but Sindermann knew that to ignore the past was to doom the future to repeat it.
The text he wrote spoke of the ineffable inscrutability of false gods, and he knew that such mysteries were closer to the surface than he cared to admit. The things he had seen and read since Sixty-Three Nineteen had stretched his scepticism to the point where he could no longer deny the truth of what was plainly before him and which Euphrati Keeler had been trying to tell them all.
Gods existed and, in the case of the Emperor, moved amongst them...
He paused for a moment as the full weight of that thought wrapped itself around him like a comforting blanket. The warmth and ease such simple acceptance gave him was like a panacea for all the ills that had troubled him this last year, and he smiled as his pen idly scratched across the page before him without his conscious thought.
Sindermann started as he realised that the pen was moving across the page of its own volition. He looked down to see what was being written.
She needs you.
Cold fear gripped him, but even as it rose, it was soothed and a comforting state of love and trust filled him. Images filled his head unbidden: the Warmaster strong and powerful in his newly forged suit of black plate armour, the amber eye glowing like a coal from the furnace. Claws slid from the Warmaster's gauntlets and an evil red glow built from his gorget, illuminating his face with a ghastly daemonic light.
'No...' breathed Sindermann, feeling a great and unspeakable horror fill him at this terrible vision, but no sooner had this image filled his head than it was replaced by one of Euphrati Keeler lying supine on her medicae bed. Terrified thoughts were banished at the sight of her and Sindermann felt his love for this beautiful woman fill him as a pure and wondrous light.
Even as he smiled in rapture, the vision darkened and yellowed talons slid into view, tearing at the image of Euphrati.
Sindermann screamed in sudden premonition.
Once again he looked at the words on the page, marvelling at their desperate simplicity.
She needs you.
Someone was sending him a message.
The saint was in danger.
COORDINATING A LEGION'S assets - its Astartes, its spacecraft, staff and accompanying Imperial Army units - was a truly Herculean task. Managing to coordinate the arrival of four Legions in the same place at the same time was an impossible task: impossible for anyone but the Warmaster.
The Vengeful Spirit, its long flat prow like the tip of a spear, slid from the warp in a kaleidoscopic display of pyrotechnics, lightning raking along its sides as the powerful warp-integrity fields took the full force of re-entry. In the interstellar distance, the closest star of the Isstvan system glinted, cold and hard against the blackness. The Eye of Horus glared from the top of the ship's prow, the entire vessel having been refitted following the victory against the Technocracy, the bone-white of the Luna Wolves replaced by the metallic grey-green of the Sons of Horus.
Within moments, another ship broke through, tearing its way into real space with the brutal functionality of its Legion. Where the Vengeful Spirit had a deadly grace to it, the newcomer was brutish and ugly, its hull a drab gunmetal-grey, its only decoration, a single brazen skull on its prow. The vessel was the Endurance, capital ship of the Death Guard fleet accompanying the Warmaster, and a flotilla of smaller cruisers and escorts flew in its wake. All were the same unembellished gunmetal, for nothing in Mortarion's Legion bore any more adornment than was necessary.
Several hours later the powerful, stabbing form of the Conqueror broke through to join the Warmaster. Shimmering with the white and blue colours of the World Eaters, the Conqueror was Angron's flagship, and its blunt muscular form echoed the legendary ferocity of the World Eaters' primarch.
Finally, the Andronius, at the head of the Emperor's Children fleet, joined the growing Isstvan strike force. The vessel itself was resplendent in purple and gold, more like a flying palace than a ship of war. Its appearance was deceptive however, for the gun decks bristled with weapons manned by well-drilled menials who lived and died to serve Fulgrim's Legion. The Andronius, for all its decorative folly, was a compact, lethal weapon of war.
The Great Crusade had rarely seen a fleet of such power assembled in one place.
Until now, only the Emperor had commanded such a force, but his place was on distant Terra, and these Legions answered only to the Warmaster.
So it was that four Legions gathered and turned their eyes towards the Isstvan system.
THE KLAXONS ANNOUNCING the Vengeful Spirit's translation back to real space were the spur to action that Kyril Sindermann had been waiting for. Mopping his brow with an already moist handkerchief, he pushed himself to his feet and made his way to the shutter of his quarters.
He took a deep, calming breath as the shutter rose and he was confronted by the hostile stares of two army soldiers, their starched uniforms insignia free and anonymous.
'Can I help you, sir?' asked a tall man with a cold, unhelpful expression.
'Yes,' said Sindermann, his voice perfectly modulated to convey his non-threatening affability. 'I need to travel to the medicae deck.'
'You don't look sick,' said the second guard. Sindermann chuckled, reaching out to touch the man's arm like a kindly grandfather. 'No, it's not me, my boy, it's a friend of mine. She's rather ill and I promised that I would look in on her.'
'Sorry,' said the first guard, in a tone that suggested he was anything but. 'We've got orders from the Astartes not to let anyone off this deck.'
'I see, I see,' sighed Sindermann, letting a tear trickle from the corner of his eye. 'I don't want to be an inconvenience, my boys, but my friend, well, she's like a daughter to me, you see. She is very dear to me and you would be doing an old man a very real favour if you could just let me see her.'
'I don't think so, sir,' said the guard, but Sindermann could already detect a softening in his tone and pushed a little harder.
'She has... she has... not long left to her, and I was told by Maloghurst himself that I would be allowed to see her before... before the end.'
Using Maloghurst's name was a gamble, but it was a calculated gamble. These men were unlikely to have any formal channel to contact the Warmaster's equerry, but if they decided to check, he would be unmasked.
Sindermann kept his voice low and soft as he played the grandfatherly role, utilizing every trick he had learned as an iterator - the precise timbre of his voice, the frailty of his posture, keeping eye contact and empathy with his audience.
'Do you have children, my boy?' asked Sindermann, reaching out clasp the guard's arm.
'Yes, sir, I do.'
'Then you understand why I have to see her,' pressed Sindermann, risking the more direct approach and hoping that he had judged these men correctly.
'You're just going to the medicae deck?' asked the guard.
'No further,' promised Sindermann. 'I just need some time to say my goodbyes to her. That's all. Please?'
The guards exchanged glances and Sinderm |
ntact and empathy with his audience.
'Do you have children, my boy?' asked Sindermann, reaching out clasp the guard's arm.
'Yes, sir, I do.'
'Then you understand why I have to see her,' pressed Sindermann, risking the more direct approach and hoping that he had judged these men correctly.
'You're just going to the medicae deck?' asked the guard.
'No further,' promised Sindermann. 'I just need some time to say my goodbyes to her. That's all. Please?'
The guards exchanged glances and Sindermann fought to keep the smile from his face as he knew he had them. The first soldier nodded and they moved aside to let him past.
'Just the medicae deck, old man,' said the guard, scrawling on a chit that would allow him passage through the ship to the medicae deck and back. 'If you're not back in your quarters in a couple of hours, I'll be dragging you back here myself.'
Sindermann nodded, taking the proffered chit and shaking both men warmly by the hand.
'You're good soldiers, boys,' he said, his voice dripping with gratitude. 'Good soldiers. I'll be sure to tell Maloghurst of your compassion for an old man.'
He turned quickly so that they didn't see the relief on his face and hurried away down the corridor towards the Medicae deck. The companionways echoed with their emptiness as he made his way through the twisting maze of the ship, an idiot smile plastered across his puffing features. Entire worlds had fallen under the spell of his oratory and here he was smiling about duping two simple-minded guards to let him out of his room. How the mighty had fallen.
'IS THERE ANY more news on Varvarus?' asked Loken as he and Torgaddon walked through the Museum of Conquest on their way to the Lupercal's Court.
Torgaddon shook his head. 'The shells were too fragmented. Apothecary Vaddon wouldn't be able to make a match even if we found the weapon that fired the shot. It was one of ours, but that's all we know.'
The museum was brimming with artifacts won from the Legion's many victories, for the Luna Wolves had brought a score of worlds into compliance. A grand statue dominating one wall recalled the days when the Emperor and Horus had fought side by side in the first campaigns of the Great Crusade. The Emperor, sword in hand, fought off slender, masked aliens while Horus, back to back with his father, blazed away with a boltgun.
Beyond the statue, Loken recognized a display of bladed insectoid limbs, a blend of metallic and biological flesh wrested from the megarachnids on Murder. Only a few of these trophies had been won after Horus's investiture as Warmaster, the majority having been taken before the Luna Wolves had been renamed the Sons of Horus in honour of the Warmaster's accomplishments.
'The remembrancers are next,' said Loken. 'They are asking too many questions. Some of them may already have been murdered.'
'Who?'
'Ignace and Petronella Vivar.'
'Karkasy,' said Torgaddon. 'Damn, I'd heard he killed himself, but I should have known they'd find a way to do it. The warrior lodge was talking about silencing him, Abaddon in particular. They didn't call it murder, although Abaddon seemed to think it was the same as killing an enemy in war. That's when I broke with the lodge.'
'Did they say how it was to be done?'
Torgaddon shook his head. 'No, just that it needed to be done.'
'It won't be long before all this is out in the open,' promised Loken. 'The lodge doesn't move under a veil of secrecy any more and soon there will be a reckoning.'
'Then what do we do?'
Loken looked away from his friend, at the high arch that led from the museum and into the Lupercal's Court.
'I don't know,' he said, waving Torgaddon to silence as he caught sight of a figure moving behind one of the furthest cabinets.
'What's up?' asked Torgaddon.
'I'm not sure,' said Loken, moving between display cabinets of gleaming swords captured from an ancient feudal kingdom and strange alien weapons taken from the many species the Legion had destroyed. The figure he had seen was another Astartes, and Loken recognized the colours of the World Eaters upon his armour.
Loken and Torgaddon rounded the corner of a tall, walnut-framed cabinet, seeing a scarred Astartes warrior peering intently at an immense battle-glaive that had been wrested from the hands of a xenos praetorian by the Warmaster himself.
'Welcome to the Vengeful Spirit,' said Loken.
The World Eater looked up from the weapon and turned to face them. His face was deeply bronzed, long and noble, contrasting with the bone white and blue of his Legion's colours.
'Greetings,' he said, bringing his forearm across his armoured chest in a martial salute.
'Kharn, Eighth Assault Company of the World Eaters.'
'Loken of the Tenth,' replied Loken. 'Torgaddon of the Second,' nodded Torgaddon. 'Impressive, this,' said Kharn, looking around him.
'Thank you,' said Loken. 'The Warmaster always believed we should remember our enemies. If we forget them, we shall never learn.'
He pointed at the weapon Kharn had been admiring. 'We have the preserved corpse of the creature that carried this weapon somewhere around here. It's the size of a tank.'
'Angron has his share of trophies too,' said Kharn, 'but only from foes that deserve to be remembered.'
'Should we not remember them all?'
'No,' said Kharn firmly. 'There is nothing to gain from knowing your enemy. The only thing that matters is that they are to be destroyed. Everything else is just a distraction.'
'Spoken like a true World Eater,' said Torgaddon.
Kharn looked up from the weapon with an amused sneer. 'You seek to provoke me, Captain Torgaddon, but I already know what other Legions think of the World Eaters.'
'We were on Aureus,' said Loken. 'You are butchers.'
Kharn smiled. 'Hah! Honesty is rare these days, Captain Loken. Yes, we are and we are proud because we are good at it. My primarch is not ashamed of what he does best, so neither am I.'
'I trust you're here for the conclave?' asked Loken, wishing to change the subject.
'Yes. I serve as my primarch's equerry.'
Torgaddon raised an eyebrow. 'Tough job.'
'Sometimes,' admitted Kharn. 'Angron cares little for diplomacy.'
'The Warmaster believes it is important.'
'So I see, but all Legions do things differently,' laughed Kharn, clapping Loken on his shoulder guard. 'As one honest man to another, your own Legion has as many detractors as admirers. Too damn superior, the lot of you.'
'The Warmaster has high standards,' said Loken.
'So does Angron, I assure you,' said Kharn, and Loken was surprised to hear a note of weariness in Kharn's voice. 'The Emperor knew that sometimes the best course of action is to let the World Eaters do what we do best. The Warmaster knows it too; otherwise we would not be here. It may be distasteful to you, captain, but if it were not for warriors like mine, the Great Crusade would have foundered long ago.'
'There we must agree to disagree,' said Loken. 'I could not do what you do.'
Kharn shook his head. 'You're a warrior of the Astartes, captain. If you had to kill every living thing in a city to ensure victory, you would do it. We must always be prepared to go further than our enemy. All the Legions know it; the World Eaters just preach it openly,'
'Let us hope it never comes to that,'
'Do not pin too much on that hope. I hear tell that Isstvan III will be difficult to break.'
'What do you know of it?' asked Torgaddon. Kharn shrugged. 'Nothing specific, just rumors really; something religious, they say, witches and warlocks, skies turning red and monsters from the warp, all the usual hyperbole. Not that the Sons of Horus would believe such things.'
'The galaxy is a complicated place,' replied Loken carefully. 'We don't know the half of what goes on in it.'
'I'm beginning to wonder myself,' agreed Kharn. 'It's changing,' continued Loken, 'the galaxy, and the Crusade with it.'
'Yes,' said Kharn with relish. 'It is.'
Loken was about to ask Kharn what he meant when the doors to the Lupercal's Court swung open.
'Evidently the Warmaster's conclave will begin soon,' said Kharn, bowing before them both. 'It is time for me to rejoin my primarch.'
'And we must join the Warmaster,' said Loken. 'Perhaps we will see you on Isstvan III?'
'Perhaps,' nodded Kharn, walking off between the spoils of a hundred wars. 'If there's anything left of Isstvan III when the World Eaters finish with it.'
THREE
Horus enthroned
The saint is in danger
Isstvan III
LUPERCAL'S COURT WAS a new addition to the Vengeful Spirit. Previously the Warmaster had held briefings and planning sessions on the strategium, but it had been decided that he needed somewhere grander to hold court. Designed by Peeter Egon Momus, it had been artfully constructed to place the Warmaster in a setting more suited to his position as the leader of the Great Crusade and present him as the first among equals to his fellow commanders.
Vast banners hung from the sides of the room, most belonging to the Legion's battle companies, though there were a few that Loken didn't recognize. He saw one with a throne of skulls set against a tower of brass rising from a blood-red sea and another with an eight-pointed black star shining in a white sky. The meaning of such obscure symbols confounded Loken, but he assumed that they represented the warrior lodge that had become integral to the Legion.
Greater than all the majesty designed by the architect designate, was the Primarch of the Sons of Horus himself, enthroned before them on a great basalt throne. Abaddon and Aximand stood to one side. Both warriors were armoured, Abaddon in the glossy black of the Justaerin, Aximand in his pale green plate.
The two officers glared at Loken and Torgaddon - the enmity that had grown between them during the Auretian campaign too great to hide any more. As he met Abaddon's flinty gaze, Loken felt great sadness as he realized that the glorious ideal of the Mournival was finally and irrevocably dead. None of them spoke a |
before them on a great basalt throne. Abaddon and Aximand stood to one side. Both warriors were armoured, Abaddon in the glossy black of the Justaerin, Aximand in his pale green plate.
The two officers glared at Loken and Torgaddon - the enmity that had grown between them during the Auretian campaign too great to hide any more. As he met Abaddon's flinty gaze, Loken felt great sadness as he realized that the glorious ideal of the Mournival was finally and irrevocably dead. None of them spoke as Loken and Torgaddon took their places on the other side of the Warmaster.
Loken had stood with these warriors and sworn an oath by the light of a reflected moon on a planet the inhabitants called Terra, to counsel the Warmaster and preserve the soul of the Legion.
That felt like a very long time ago.
'Loken, Torgaddon,' said Horus, and even after all that had happened, Loken felt honored to be so addressed. 'Your role here is simply to observe and remind our Legion brothers of the solidity of our cause. Do you understand?'
'Yes, my Warmaster,' said Torgaddon.
'Loken?' asked the Warmaster.
Loken nodded and took his allotted position. 'Yes, Warmaster.'
He felt the Warmaster's penetrating eyes boring into him, but kept his gaze fixed firmly on the arches that led into the Lupercal's Court as the doors beneath one of them slid open. The tramp of feet sounded and a blood-red angel of death emerged from the shadows.
Loken had seen the primarch of the World Eaters before, but was still awed by his monstrous, physical presence. Angron was huge, easily as tall as the Warmaster, but also massively broad, with wide hulking shoulders like some enormous beast of burden. His face was scarred and violent, his eyes buried deep in folds of angry red scar tissue. Ugly cortical implants jutted from his scalp, connected to the collar of his armour by ribbed cables. The primarch's armour was ancient and bronze, like that of a feral world god, with heavy metal plates over mail and twin chainaxes strapped to his back. Loken had heard that Angron had once been a slave before the Emperor had found him, and that his masters had forced the implants on him to turn him into a psychotic killer for their fighting pits. Looking at Angron, Loken could well believe it. Angron's equerry, Kharn, flanked the terrifying primarch, his expression neutral where his master's was thunder.
'Horus!' said Angron, his voice rough and brutal. 'I see the Warmaster welcomes his brother like a king. Am I your subject now?'
'Angron,' replied Horus unperturbed, 'it is good that you could join us.'
'And miss all this prettiness? Not for the world,' said Angron, his voice loaded with the threat of a smouldering volcano.
A second delegation arrived through another of the arches, arrayed in the purple and gold of the Emperor's Children. Led by Eidolon in all his magnificence, a squad of Astartes with glittering swords marched alongside the lord commander, their battle gear as ornate as their leader's.
'Warmaster, the Lord Fulgrim sends his regards,' stated Eidolon formally and with great humility. Loken saw that Eidolon had learned the ways of a practiced diplomat since he had last spoken to the Warmaster. 'He assures you that his task is well under way and that he will join us soon. I speak for him and command the Legion in his stead.'
Loken's eyes darted from Angron to Eidolon, seeing the obvious antipathy between the two Legions. The Emperor's Children and the World Eaters were as different as could be - Angron's Legion fought and won through raw aggression, while the Emperor's Children had perfected the art of picking an enemy force apart and destroying it a piece at a time.
'Lord Angron,' said Eidolon with a bow, 'it is an honour.'
Angron did not deign to reply and Loken saw Eidolon stiffen at this insult, but any immediate confrontation was averted as the final delegation to the Warmaster entered the Lupercal's Court.
Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard was backed by a unit of warriors armoured in the dull gleam of unpainted Terminator plate. Mortarion's armour was also bare, with the brass skull of the Death Guard on one shoulder guard. His pallid face and scalp were hairless and pocked, his mouth and throat hidden by a heavy collar that hissed spurts of grey steam as he breathed.
A Death Guard captain marched beside the primarch, and Loken recognised him with a smile. Captain Nathaniel Garro had fought alongside the Sons of Horus in the days when they had been known as the Luna Wolves. The Terran-born captain had won many friends within the Warmaster's Legion for his unshakeable code of honour and his straightforward, honest manner.
The Death Guard warrior caught Loken's gaze and gave a perfunctory nod of greeting.
'With our brother Mortarion,' said Horus, 'we are complete.'
The Warmaster stood and descended from the elevated throne to the centre of the court as the lights dimmed and a glowing globe appeared above him, hovering just below the ceiling.
'This,' said Horus, 'is Isstvan III, courtesy of servitor-manned stellar cartography drones. Remember it well, for history will be made here.'
JONAH ARUKEN PAUSED in his labours and slipped a small hip flask from beneath his uniform jacket as he checked for anyone watching. The hangar bay was bustling with activity, as it always seemed to be these days, but no one was paying him any attention. The days when an Imperator Titan being made ready for war would pause even the most jaded war maker in his tracks were long past, for there were few here who had not seen the mighty form of the Dies Irae being furnished for battle scores of times already.
He took a hit from the flask and looked up at the old girl.
The Titan's hull was scored and dented with wounds the Mechanicum servitors had not yet had time to patch and Jonah patted the thick plates of her leg armour affectionately.
'Well, old girl,' he said. 'You've certainly seen some action, but I still love you.'
He smiled at the thought of a man being in love with a machine, but he'd love anything that had saved his life as often as the Dies Irae had. Through the fires of uncounted battles, they had fought together and as much as Titus Cassar denied it, Jonah knew that there was a mighty heart and soul at the core of this glorious war machine.
Jonah took another drink from his flask as his expression turned sour thinking of Titus and his damned sermons. Titus said he felt the light of the Emperor within him, but Jonah didn't feel much of anything any more.
As much as he wanted to believe in what Titus was preaching, he just couldn't let go of the sceptical core at the centre of his being. To believe in things that weren't there, that couldn't be seen or felt? Titus called it faith, but Jonah was a man who needed to believe in what was real, what could be touched and experienced.
Princeps Turnet would discharge him from the crew of the Dies Irae if he knew he had attended prayer meetings back on Davin, and the thought of spending the rest of the Crusade as a menial, denied forever the thrill of commanding the finest war machine ever to come from the forges of Mars sent a cold shiver down his spine.
Every few days, Titus would ask him to come to another prayer meeting and the times he said yes, they would furtively make their way to some forsaken part of the ship to listen to passages read from the Lectitio Divinitatus. Each time he would sweat the journey back for fear of discovery and the court martial that would no doubt follow.
Jonah had been a career Titan crewman since the day he had first set foot aboard his inaugural posting, a Warhound Titan called the Venator, and he knew that if it came down to a choice, he would choose the Dies Irae over the Lectitio Divinitatus every time.
But still, the thought that Titus might be right continued to nag at him.
He leaned back against the Titan's leg, sliding down until he was sitting on his haunches with his knees drawn up to his chest.
'Faith,' he whispered, 'you can't earn it and you can't buy it. Where then do I find it?'
'Well,' said a voice behind and above him, 'you can start by putting that flask away and coming with me.'
Jonah looked up and saw Titus Cassar, resplendent as always in his parade-ready uniform, standing in the arched entrance to the Titan's leg bastions.
'Titus,' said Jonah, hurriedly stuffing the hip flask back into his jacket. 'What's up?'
'We have to go,' said Titus urgently. 'The saint is in danger.'
MAGGARD STALKED ALONG the shadowed companionways of the Vengeful Spirit at a brisk pace, marching at double time with the vigour of a man on his way to a welcome rendezvous. His hulking form had been steadily growing over the last few months, as though he were afflicted with some hideous form of rapid gigantism.
But the procedures the Warmaster's apothecaries were performing on his frame were anything but hideous. His body was changing, growing and transforming beyond anything the crude surgeries of House Carpinus had ever managed. Already he could feel the new organs within him reshaping his flesh and bone into something greater than he could ever have imagined, and this was just the beginning. His Kirlian blade was unsheathed, shimmering with a strange glow in the dim light of the corridor. He wore fresh white robes, his enlarging physique already too massive for his armour. Legion artificers stood ready to reshape it once his flesh had settled into its new form, and he missed its reassuring solidity enclosing him.
Like him, his armour would be born anew, forged into something worthy of the Warmaster and his chosen warriors. Maggard knew he was not yet ready for such inclusion, but he had already carved himself a niche within the Sons of Horus. He walked where the Astartes could not, acted where they could not be seen to act and spilled blood where they needed to be seen as peacemakers.
It required a special kind of man to do such work, efficiently and consc |
missed its reassuring solidity enclosing him.
Like him, his armour would be born anew, forged into something worthy of the Warmaster and his chosen warriors. Maggard knew he was not yet ready for such inclusion, but he had already carved himself a niche within the Sons of Horus. He walked where the Astartes could not, acted where they could not be seen to act and spilled blood where they needed to be seen as peacemakers.
It required a special kind of man to do such work, efficiently and conscience-free, and Maggard was perfectly suited to his new role. He had killed hundreds of people at the behest of House Carpinus and many more than that before he had been captured by them, but these had been poor, messy killings compared to the death he now carried.
He remembered the sense of magnificent beginnings when Maloghurst had tasked him with the death of Ignace Karkasy.
Maggard had jammed the barrel of his pistol beneath the poet's quivering jaw and blown his brains out over the roof of his cramped room before letting the generously fleshed body crash to the floor in a flurry of bloody papers.
Why Maloghurst had required Karkasy's death did not concern Maggard. The equerry spoke with the voice of Horus and Maggard had pledged his undying loyalty to the Warmaster on the battlefield of Davin when he had offered him his sword.
Later, whether in reward or as part of his ongoing designs, the Warmaster had killed his former mistress, Petronella Vivar, and for that, Maggard was forever in his debt.
Whatever the Warmaster desired, Maggard would move heaven or hell to see it done.
Now he had been ordered to do something wondrous.
Now he was going to kill a saint.
SINDERMANN BEAT HIS middle finger against his chin in a nervous tattoo as he tried to look as if he belonged in this part of the ship. Deck crew in orange jumpsuits and ordnance officers in yellow jackets threaded past him as he awaited his accomplices in this endeavor. He clutched the chit the guard had given him tightly, as though it were some kind of talisman that would protect him if someone challenged him.
'Come on, come on,' he whispered. 'Where are you?'
It had been a risk contacting Titus Cassar, but he had no one else to turn to. Mersadie did not believe in the Lectitio Divinitatus, and in truth he wasn't sure he did yet, but he knew that whatever or whoever had sent him the vision of Euphrati Keeler had meant him to act upon it. Likewise, Garviel Loken was out of the question, for it was certain that his movements would not escape notice.
'Iterator,' hissed a voice from beside him and Sindermann almost cried aloud in surprise. Titus Cassar stood beside him, an earnest expression creasing his slender face. Another man stood behind him, similarly uniformed in the dark blue of a Titan crewman. 'Titus,' breathed Sindermann in relief. 'I wasn't sure you'd be able to come.'
'We won't have long before Princeps Turnet notices we are not at our posts, but your communication said the saint was in danger.'
'She is,' confirmed Sindermann, 'grave danger,'
'How do you know?' asked the second man. Cassar's brow twisted in annoyance. 'I'm sorry, Kyril, this is Jonah Aruken, my fellow Moderati on the Dies Irae. He is one of us.'
'I just know,' said Sindermann. 'I saw... I don't know... a vision of her lying on her bed and I just knew that someone intended her harm.'
'A vision,' breathed Cassar. 'Truly you are one of the chosen of the Emperor.'
'No, no,' hissed Sindermann. 'I'm really not. Now come on, we don't have time for this, we have to go now.'
'Where?' asked Jonah Aruken. 'The medicae deck,' said Sindermann, holding up his chit. 'We have to get to the medicae deck.'
THE SURFACE OF the shimmering globe above Horus resolved into continents and oceans, overlaid with the traceries of geophysical features: plains, forests, seas, mountain ranges and cities.
Horus held up his arms, as if supporting the globe from below like some titan from the ancient myths of old Earth.
'This is Isstvan III,' he repeated, 'a world brought into compliance thirteen years ago by the 27th expeditionary force of our brother Corax.'
'And he wasn't up to the job?' snorted Angron.
Horus shot Angron a dangerous look. 'There was some resistance, yes, but the last elements of the aggressive faction were destroyed by the Raven Guard at the Redarth Valley.'
The battle site flared red on the globe, nestled among a mountain range on one of Isstvan III's northern continents. 'The remembrancer order was not yet foisted upon us by the Council of Terra, but a substantial civilian contingent was left behind to begin integration with the Imperial Truth.'
'Are we to assume that the Truth didn't take?' asked Eidolon.
'Mortarion?' prompted Horus, gesturing to his brother primarch.
'Four months ago the Death Guard received a distress signal from Isstvan III,' said Mortarion. 'It was weak and old. We only received it because one of our supply ships joining the fleet at Arcturan dropped out of the warp for repairs. Given the age of the signal and the time it took for it to be relayed to my command, it is likely that it was sent at least two years ago.'
'What did it say?' asked Angron.
In reply, the holographic image of the globe unfolded into a large flat pane, like a pict-screen hovering in the air, black, with just a hint of shadowy movement. A shape moved on the screen and Loken realized it was a face - a woman's face, orange-lit by a candle flame that provided the only light. She appeared to be in a small, stone walled chamber. Even over the poor quality of the signal, Loken could tell that the woman was terrified, her eyes wide and her breathing rapid and shallow. She gleamed with sweat.
'The insignia on her collar,' said Torgaddon, 'is from the 27th Expedition.'
The woman adjusted the device she was using to record the image and sound flooded into the Lupercal's Court: crackling flames, distant yelling and gunfire.
'It's revolution,' said the woman, her voice warped by static. 'Open revolt. These people, they have... rejected... they've rejected it all. We tried to integrate them, we thought the Warsingers were just some primitive... superstition, but it was much more, it was real. Praal has gone mad and the Warsingers are with him.'
The woman suddenly looked around at something off-screen.
'No!' she screamed desperately and opened fire with a weapon previously held out of view. Violent muzzle flashes lit her and something indescribable flailed against the far wall as she emptied her weapon into it. 'They're closer. They know we're here and... I think I'm the last one.'
The woman turned back to the screen. 'It's madness, complete madness down here. Please, I don't think I'm going to get through this. Send someone, anyone, just... make this stop-'
A hideous, atonal keening sound blared from the pict screen. The woman grabbed her head, her screams drowned by the inhuman sound. The last frames jerked and fragmented, freeze framing through a series of gruesome images: blood in the woman's frenzied eye, a swirling mass of flesh and shattered bone, and a mouth locked open, blood on teeth.
Then blackness.
'There have been no further communications from Isstvan III,' concluded Mortarion, filling the silence that followed. 'The planet's astropaths have either been compromised or they are dead.'
'The name "Praal" refers to Vardus Praal,' said Horus, 'the governor left behind to command Isstvan III in the name of the Imperium, ensure compliance and manage the dismantling of the traditional religious structures that defined the planet's autochthonous society. If he is complicit in the rebellion on Isstvan III, as this recording suggests, then he is one of our objectives.'
Loken felt a shiver travel down his spine at the thought of once again facing a population whose Imperial official had turned traitor. He glanced over at Torgaddon and saw that the similarities with the Davin campaign were not lost on his comrade.
The holo swelled and returned to the image of Isstvan III. 'The cultural and religious capital of Isstvan is here,' said Horus as the image zoomed in on one of the northern cities, which commanded a large hinterland at the foot of a colossal range of mountains.
'The Choral City. This is the source of the distress signal and the seat of Praal's command, a building known as the Precentor's Palace. Multiple speartips will seize a number of strategic objectives, and with the city in our hands, Isstvan will be ours. The first assault will be a combined force made up of Astartes from all Legions with backup from the Titans of the Mechanicum and the Imperial Army. The rest of the planet will then be subjugated by whichever Imperial Army reinforcements can reach us with the warp in its current state.'
'Why not just bombard them?' asked Eidolon. The sudden silence that followed his question was deafening.
Loken waited for the Warmaster to reprimand Eidolon for daring to question one of his decisions, but Horus only nodded indulgently. 'Because these people are vermin, and when you stamp out vermin from afar, some invariably survive. If we are to cut out the problem, we must get our hands dirty and destroy them in one fell swoop. It may not be as elegant as the Emperor's Children would wish, but elegance is not a priority for me, only swift victory.'
'Of course,' said Eidolon, shaking his head. 'To think that these fools should be so blind to the realities of the galaxy.'
'Have no fear, lord commander,' said Abaddon, descending to stand beside the Warmaster, 'they will be illuminated as to the error of their ways.'
Loken risked a sidelong glance at the first captain, surprised at the respect he heard in his voice. All the previous dealings between the Sons of Horus and Eidolon had led him to believe that Abaddon held the arrogant lord commander in contempt.
What had changed?
'Mortarion,' continued Horus. 'Your objective will be to engage the main force of the Choral C |
fear, lord commander,' said Abaddon, descending to stand beside the Warmaster, 'they will be illuminated as to the error of their ways.'
Loken risked a sidelong glance at the first captain, surprised at the respect he heard in his voice. All the previous dealings between the Sons of Horus and Eidolon had led him to believe that Abaddon held the arrogant lord commander in contempt.
What had changed?
'Mortarion,' continued Horus. 'Your objective will be to engage the main force of the Choral City's army. If they are anything like they were when the Raven Guard fought them, they will be professional soldiers and will not break easily, even when confronted with Astartes.'
The holo zoomed in to show a map of the Choral City, a handsome conurbation with many and varied buildings that ranged from exquisite mansions and basilica to massive sprawls of housing and tangles of industrial complexes. Artfully formed boulevards and thoroughfares threaded a multi-levelled city of millions, most of whom appeared to be housed in sprawling residential districts, workshops and factories.
The western edge of the city was highlighted, focusing on the scar-like web of defensive trenches and bunkers along the city's outskirts. The opposite side of the Choral City butted up against the sheer cliffs of a mountain range - the natural defences efficiently shielding the city from a conventional land attack.
Unfortunately for the Choral City, the Warmaster clearly wasn't planning a conventional land attack. 'It appears that a sizeable armed force is manning these defences,' said Horus. 'It looks as if they have excellent fortifications and artillery. Many of these defences were added after compliance to protect the seat of Imperial governance on Isstvan, which means they're ours, and they will be strong. It will be ugly work engaging and destroying this force, and there is still much about the Choral City's military we do not know.'
'I welcome this challenge, Warmaster,' said Mortarion. 'This is my Legion's natural battlefield.'
Another location lurched into focus, a spectacular conglomeration of arches and spires, with dozens of labyrinth-like wings and additions surrounding a magnificent central dome faced in polished stone The city's crowning glory, the structure looked like a jewelled brooch set into the twisted mass of the Choral City.
'The Precentor's Palace,' said Eidolon appreciatively.
'And your Legion will take it,' said Horus, 'along with the World Eaters.'
Again, Loken caught Eidolon's glance at Angron, the lord commander unable to conceal the distaste he felt at the thought of fighting alongside such a barbaric Legion. If Angron was aware of Eidolon's scornful glance he gave no sign of it.
'The palace is one of Praal's most likely locations,' said Horus. 'Therefore, the palace is one of our most important objectives. The palace must be taken, the Choral City's leadership destroyed, and Praal killed. He is a traitor, so I do not expect or wish him to be taken alive.'
Finally, the holo zoomed in on a curious mass of stonework some way east of the Precentor's Palace. To Loken's untutored eye, it looked like a collection of church spires or temples, sacred buildings heaped one on top of one another over the centuries.
'This is the Sirenhold and my Sons of Horus will lead the attack on it,' said Horus. 'Choral City's revolt appears to be religious in nature and the Sirenhold was the spiritual heart of the city. According to Corax's reports, this was the seat of the old pagan religion that was supposed to have been dismantled. It is presumed that it still exists and that the leadership of that religion will be found here. This is another likely location for Vardus Praal, so again I do not require prisoners, only destruction.' For the first time, Loken saw the battlefield he would soon be fighting on. The Sirenhold looked like difficult ground to take: massive, complicated structures creating a confusing multi-levelled warren with plenty of places to hide. Dangerous ground.
That was why the Warmaster had sent his own Legion to take it. He knew they could do it.
The holo zoomed out again to a view of the planet itself.
'Preliminary operations will involve the destruction of the monitoring stations on the seventh planet of Isstvan Extremis,' said Horus. 'When the rebels are blind the invasion of Isstvan III will commence. The units chosen to lead the first wave will deploy by drop-pod and gunship, with a second wave ready in reserve. I trust you all understand what is required of your Legions.'
'I only have one question, Warmaster,' said Angron.
'Speak,' said Horus.
'Why do we plan this attack with such precision when a single, massive strike will do the job just as well?'
'You object to my plans, Angron?' Horus asked carefully.
'Of course I object,' spat Angron. 'We have four Legions, Titans and starships at our disposal, and this is just one city. We should hit it with everything we have and slaughter them in the streets. Then we will see how many on this planet have the stomach to rebel. But no, you would have us kill them one by one and pick off their leaders as if we are here to preserve this world. Rebellion is in the people, Horus. Kill the people and the rebellion ends.'
'Lord Angron,' said Eidolon reasonably, 'you speak out of turn-'
'Hold your tongue in the presence of your betters,' snarled Angron. 'I know what you Emperor's Children think of us, but you mistake our directness for stupidity. Speak to me again without my consent and I will kill you.'
'Angron!'
Horus's voice cut through the building tension and the primarch of the World Eaters turned his murderous attention away from Eidolon.
'You place little value on the lives of your World Eaters,' said Horus, 'and you believe in the way of war you have made your own, but that does not place you beyond my authority. I am the Warmaster, the commander of everyone and everything that falls under the aegis of the Great Crusade. Your Legion will deploy according to the orders I have given you. Is that clear?'
Angron nodded curtly as Horus turned to Eidolon. 'Lord Commander Eidolon, you are not among equals here, and your presence in this war council is dependent upon my good graces, which will be rapidly worn thin should you conduct yourself as if Fulgrim was here to nursemaid you.'
Eidolon rapidly recovered his composure. 'Of course, my Warmaster, I meant no disrespect. I shall ensure that my Legion is prepared for the assault on Isstvan Extremis and the capture of the Precentor's Palace.'
Horus switched his gaze to Angron, who grunted in assent.
'The World Eaters will be ready, Warmaster,' said Kharn.
'Then this conclave is at an end,' said Horus. 'Return to your Legions and make ready for war.'
The delegations filed out, Kharn speaking quietly with Angron and Eidolon adopting a swagger as if to compensate for his dressing down. Loken thought he saw a gleam of amusement in Mortarion's eyes as he left with Garro and his Terminators in tow.
Horus turned to Abaddon and said, 'Have a stormbird prepared to convey me to the Conqueror. Angron must be illuminated as to the proper conduct of this endeavor.'
Horus turned and made his way from the Lupercal's court with Abaddon and Aximand following behind him without so much as a backwards glance at Loken and Torgaddon.
'That was educational,' said Torgaddon when they were alone.
Loken smiled wearily. 'I could feel you willing Angron to strike Eidolon.'
Torgaddon laughed, remembering when he and Eidolon had almost come to blows when they had first met on the surface of Murder.
'If only we could join the Warmaster on the Conqueror!' said Torgaddon. 'Now that would be something worth seeing. Horus illuminating Angron. What would they talk about?'
'What indeed?' agreed Loken. There was so much Loken didn't know, but as he pondered his unhappy ignorance, he remembered the last thing Kyril Sindermann had shouted to him as he was led away by Maloghurst's soldiers.
'Tarik, we have a battle to prepare for, so I want you to get everyone ready. It's going to be a hard fight on Isstvan III.'
'I know,' said Torgaddon. 'The Sirenhold. What a bloody shambles. This is what happens when you give people a god to believe in.'
'Get Vipus up to speed as well. If we're attacking the Sirenhold, I want Locasta with us.'
'Of course,' nodded Torgaddon. 'Sometimes I think you and Nero are the only people I can trust any more. What are you going to be doing?'
'I have some reading to catch up on,' said Loken.
FOUR
Sacrifice
A single moment
Keep her safe
WHEREVER EREBUS WALKED, shadows followed in his wake. Flickering whisperers were his constant companions, invisible creatures that lurked just beyond sight and ghosted in his shadow. The whisperers flitted from Erebus and gathered in the shadowed corners of the chamber, a stone-walled lodge built in the image of the temple room of the Delphos where Akshub had cut his throat.
Deep in the heart of the Vengeful Spirit, the lodge temple was low, close and hot, lit by a crackling fire that burned in a pit in the middle of the room. Flames threw leaping shapes across the walls. 'My Warmaster,' said Erebus. 'We are prepared.' 'Good,' replied the Warmaster. 'It has cost us a great deal to reach this point, Erebus. For all our sakes it had better be worth it, but mostly for yours.'
'It will be, Warmaster,' assured Erebus, paying no heed to the threat. 'Our allies are keen to finally speak to you directly.'
Erebus stooped to stare into the fire, the flames reflecting from his shaven, tattooed head and in his armour, recently painted in the deep scarlet colours now adopted by the Word Bearers Legion. As confident as he sounded, he allowed himself a moment of pause. Dealing with creatures from the warp was never straightforward, and should he fail to meet the Warmaster's expectations then his life would be forfeit.
The Warmaster's presence filled the lodge, armoured as he |
y speak to you directly.'
Erebus stooped to stare into the fire, the flames reflecting from his shaven, tattooed head and in his armour, recently painted in the deep scarlet colours now adopted by the Word Bearers Legion. As confident as he sounded, he allowed himself a moment of pause. Dealing with creatures from the warp was never straightforward, and should he fail to meet the Warmaster's expectations then his life would be forfeit.
The Warmaster's presence filled the lodge, armoured as he was in a magnificent suit of obsidian Terminator armour gifted to him by the Fabricator General himself. Sent from Mars to cement the alliance between Horus and the Mechanicum of Mars, the armour echoed the colours of the elite Justaerin, but it far surpassed them in ornamentation and power. The amber eye upon the breastplate stared from the armour's torso and shoulder plates, and on one hand Horus sported a monstrous gauntlet with deadly blades for fingers.
Erebus lifted a book from beside the fire and rose to his feet, reverently turning the ancient pages until he came to a complex illustration of interlocking symbols.
'We are ready. I can begin once the sacrifice is made.'
Horus nodded and said, 'Adept, join us.'
Moments later, the bent and robed form of Adept Regulus entered the warrior lodge. The representative of the Mechanicum was almost completely mechanised, as was common among the higher echelons of his order. Beneath his robes his body was fashioned from gleaming bronze, steel and cables. Only his face showed, if it could be called a face, with large augmetic eyepieces and a vocabulator unit that allowed the adept to communicate.
Regulus led the ghostly figure of Ing Mae Sing, her steps fearful and her hands flitting, as if swatting at a swarm of flies.
'This is unorthodox,' said Regulus, his voice like steel wire on the nerves.
'Adept,' said the Warmaster. 'You are here as the representative of the Mechanicum. The priests of Mars are essential to the Crusade and they must be a part of the new order. You have already pledged your strength to me and now it is time you witnessed the price of that bargain.'
'Warmaster,' began Regulus, 'I am yours to command.'
Horus nodded and said, 'Erebus, continue.' Erebus stepped past the Warmaster and directed his gaze towards Ing Mae Sing. Though the astropath was blind, she recoiled as she felt his eyes roaming across her flesh. She backed against one wall, trying to shrink away from him, but he grasped her arm in a crushing grip and dragged her towards the fire. 'She is powerful,' said Erebus. 'I can taste her.'
'She is my best,' said Horus.
'That is why it has to be her,' said Erebus. 'The symbolism is as important as the power. A sacrifice is not a sacrifice if it is not valued by the giver.'
'No, please,' cried Ing Mae Sing, twisting in his grip as she realized the import of the Word Bearer's statement.
Horus stepped forwards and tenderly took hold of the astropath's chin, halting her struggles and tilting her head upwards so that she would have looked upon his face had she but eyes to see.
'You betrayed me, Mistress Sing,' said Horus.
Ing Mae Sing whimpered, nonsensical protests spilling from her terrified lips. She tried to shake her head, but Horus held her firm and said, 'There is no point in denying it. I already know everything. After you told me of Euphrati Keeler, you sent a warning to someone, didn't you? Tell me who it was and I will let you live. Try to resist and your death will be more agonizing than you can possibly imagine.'
'No,' whispered Ing Mae Sing. 'I am already dead. I know this, so kill me and have done with it.'
'You will not tell me what I wish to know?'
'There is no point,' gasped Ing Mae Sing. 'You will kill me whether I tell you or not. You may have the power to conceal your lies, but your serpent does not.' Erebus watched as Horus nodded slowly to himself, as if reluctantly reaching a decision.
'Then we have no more to say to one another,' said Horus sadly, drawing back his arm.
He rammed his clawed gauntlet through her chest, the blades tearing through her heart and lungs and ripping from her back in a spray of red. Erebus nodded towards the fire and the Warmaster held the corpse above the pit, letting Ing Mae Sing's blood drizzle into the flames.
The emotions of her death flooded the lodge as the blood hissed in the fire, hot, raw and powerful: fear, pain and the horror of betrayal.
Erebus knelt and scratched designs on the floor, copying them exactly from the diagrams in the book: a star with eight points that was orbited by three circles, a stylized skull and the cuneiform runes of Colchis. 'You have done this before,' said Horus. 'Many times,' said Erebus, nodding towards the fire. 'I speak here with my primarch's voice, and it is a voice our allies respect.'
'They are not allies yet,' said Horus, lowering his arm and letting the body of Ing Mae Sing slide from the claws of his gauntlet.
Erebus shrugged and began chanting words from the Book of Lorgar, his voice dark and guttural as he called upon the gods of the warp to send their emissary.
Despite the brightness of the fire, the lodge darkened and Erebus felt the temperature fall, a chill wind gusting from somewhere unseen and unknown. It carried the dust of ages past and the ruin of empires in its every breath, and ageless eternity was borne upon the unnatural zephyr.
'Is this supposed to happen?' asked Regulus.
Erebus smiled and nodded without answering as the air grew icy, the whisperers gibbering in unreasoning fear as they felt the arrival of something ancient and terrible. Shadows gathered in the corners of the room, although no light shone to cast them and a racing whip of malicious laughter spiraled around the chamber.
Regulus spun on hissing bearings as he sought to identify the source of the sounds, his ocular implants whirring as they struggled to find focus in the darkness. Frost gathered on the struts and pipes high above them.
Horus stood unmoving as the shadows of the chamber hissed and spat, a chorus of voices that came from everywhere and nowhere.
'You are the one your kind calls Warmaster?'
Erebus nodded as Horus looked over at him.
'I am,' said Horus. 'Warmaster of the Great Crusade. To whom do I speak?'
'I am Sarr'Kell,' said the voice. 'Lord of the Shadows!'
THE THREE OF them made their way swiftly through the decks of the Vengeful Spirit, heading down towards the tiled environment of the medicae deck. Sindermann kept the pace as brisk as he could; his breath sharp and painful as they hurried to save the saint from whatever dark fate awaited her.
'What do you expect to find when we reach the saint, iterator?' asked Jonah Aruken, his nervous hands fingering the catch on his pistol holster.
Sindermann thought of the small medicae cell where he and Mersadie Oliton had stood vigil over Euphrati and wondered that same thought.
'I don't know exactly,' he said. 'I just know we have to help.'
'I just hope a frail old man and our pistols are up to the job.'
'What do you mean?' asked Sindermann, as they descended a wide screw stair that led deeper into the ship.
'Well, I just wonder how you plan to fight the kind of danger that could threaten a saint. I mean, whatever it is must be pretty damn dangerous, yes?'
Sindermann paused in his descent, as much to catch his breath as to answer Aruken.
'Whoever sent me that warning obviously thinks that I can help,' he said.
'And that's enough for you?' asked Aruken.
'Jonah, leave him alone,' cautioned Titus Cassar.
'No, damn it, I won't,' said Aruken. 'This is serious and we could get in real trouble. I mean, this Keeler woman, she's supposed to be all saintly, yes? Then why doesn't the power of the Emperor save her? Why does he need us?'
'The Emperor works through His faithful servants, Jonah,' explained Titus. 'It is not enough to simply believe and await divine intervention to sweep down from the heavens and set the world to rights. The Emperor has shown us the path and it is up to us to seize this chance to do His will.'
Sindermann watched the exchange between the two crewmen, his anxiety growing with every second that passed.
'I don't know if I can do this, Titus,' said Aruken, 'not without some proof that we're doing the right thing.'
'We are, Jonah,' pressed Titus. 'You must trust that the Emperor has a plan for you.'
'The Emperor may or may not have a plan for me, but I sure as hell do,' snapped Aruken. 'I want command of a Titan, and that's not going to happen if we get caught doing something stupid.'
'Please!' cut in Sindermann, his chest hurting with worry for the saint. 'We have to go! Something terrible is coming to harm her and we have to stop it. I can think of no more compelling an argument than that. I'm sorry, but you'll just have to trust me.'
'Why should I?' asked Aruken. 'You've given me no reason to. I don't even know why I'm here.'
'Listen to me, Mister Aruken,' said Sindermann earnestly. 'When you live as long and complex a life as I have, you learn that it always comes down to a single moment - a moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he really is. This is that moment, Mister Aruken. Will this be a moment you are proud to look back on or will it be one you will regret for the rest of your life?'
The two Titan crewmen shared a glance and eventually Aruken sighed and said, 'I need my head looked at for this, but all right, let's go save the day.'
A palpable sense of relief flooded through Sindermann and the pain in his chest eased.
'I am proud of you, Mr Aruken,' he said, 'and I thank you, your aid is most welcome.'
'Thank me when we save this saint of yours,' said Aruken, setting off down the stairs.
They followed the stairs down, passing several decks until the symbol of intertwined serpents around a winged staff indicated they had arrived at the medicae deck. It had been some weeks since the last casualties had been brought aboard th |
palpable sense of relief flooded through Sindermann and the pain in his chest eased.
'I am proud of you, Mr Aruken,' he said, 'and I thank you, your aid is most welcome.'
'Thank me when we save this saint of yours,' said Aruken, setting off down the stairs.
They followed the stairs down, passing several decks until the symbol of intertwined serpents around a winged staff indicated they had arrived at the medicae deck. It had been some weeks since the last casualties had been brought aboard the Vengeful Spirit and the sterile, gleaming wilderness of tiled walls and brushed steel cabinets felt empty, a warren of soulless glass rooms and laboratories.
'This way,' said Sindermann, setting off into the confusing maze of corridors, the way familiar to him after all the times he had visited the comatose imagist. Cassar and Aruken followed him, keeping a watchful eye out for anyone who might challenge their presence. At last they reached a nondescript white door and Sindermann said, 'This is it.' Aruken said, 'Better let us go first, old man.' Sindermann nodded and backed away from the door, pressing his hands over his ears as the two Titan crewmen unholstered their pistols. Aruken crouched low beside the door and nodded to Cassar, who pressed the release panel.
The door slid aside and Aruken spun through it with his pistol extended.
Cassar was a second behind him, his pistol tracking left and right for targets, and Sindermann awaited the deafening flurry of pistol shots.
When none came he dared to open his eyes and uncover his ears. He didn't know whether to be glad or deathly afraid that they were too late.
He turned and looked through the door, seeing the familiar clean and well maintained medicae cell he had visited many times. Euphrati lay like a mannequin on the bed, her skin like alabaster and her face pinched and sunken. A pair of drips fed her fluids and a small, bleeping machine drew spiking lines on a green display unit beside her.
Aside from her immobility she looked just as she had the last time he had laid eyes on her.
'Just as well we rushed,' snapped Aruken. 'Looks like we were just in time.'
'I think you might be right,' said Sindermann, as he saw the golden-eyed figure of Maggard come into view at the far end of the corridor with his sword unsheathed.
'YOU ARE KNOWN to us, Warmaster,' said Sarr'Kell, his voice leaping around the room like a capricious whisper. 'It is said that you are the one who can deliver us. Is that true?'
'Perhaps,' replied Horus, apparently unperturbed by the strangeness of his unseen interlocutor. 'My brother Lorgar assures me that your masters can give me the power to achieve victory.'
'Victory,' whispered Sarr'Kell. 'An almost meaningless word in the scale of the cosmos, but yes, we have much power to offer you. No army will stand before you, no power of mortal man will lay you low and no ambition will be denied you if you swear yourself to us.'
'Just words,' said Horus. 'Show me something tangible.'
'Power,' hissed Sarr'Kell, the sound rippling around Horus like a slithering snake. 'The warp brings power. There is nothing beyond the reach of the gods of the warp!'
'Gods?' replied Horus. 'You waste your time throwing such words around, they do not impress me. I already know that your "gods" need my help, so speak plainly or we are done here.'
'Your Emperor,' replied Sarr'Kell, and for a fleeting moment, Erebus detected a trace of unease in the creature's voice. Such entities were unused to the defiance of a mortal, even one as mighty as a primarch. 'He meddles in matters he does not understand. On the world you call Terra, his grand designs cause a storm in the warp that tears it asunder from within. We care nothing for your realm, you know this. It is anathema to us. We offer power that can help you take his place, Warmaster. Our aid will see you destroy your foes and take you to the very gates of the Emperor's palace. We can deliver the galaxy to you. All we care for is that his works cease and that you take his place.'
The unseen voice spoke in sibilant tones, slick and persuasive, but Erebus could see that Horus was unmoved. 'And what of this power? Do you understand the magnitude of this task? The galaxy will be divided, brother will fight brother. The Emperor will have his Legions and the Imperial Army, the Custodian Guard, the Sisters of Silence. Can you be the equal of such a foe?'
'The gods of the warp are masters of the primal forces of all reality. As your Emperor creates, the warp decays and destroys. As he brings us to battle, we shall melt away, and as he gathers his strength, we shall strike from the shadows. The victory of the gods is as inevitable as the passing of time and the mortality of flesh. Do the gods not rule an entire universe hidden from your eyes, Warmaster? Have they not made the warp dark at their command?'
'Your gods did this? Why? You have blinded my Legions!'
'Necessity, Warmaster. The darkness blinds the Emperor too, blinds him to our plans and yours. The Emperor thinks himself the master of the warp and he would seek to know his enemies by it, but see how swiftly we can confound him? You will have passage through the warp as you need it, Warmaster, for as we bring darkness, so we can bring light.'
'The Emperor remains ignorant of all that has transpired?'
'Completely,' sighed Sarr'Kell, 'and so, Warmaster, you see the power we can give you. All that remains is for your word, and the pact will be made.'
Horus said nothing, as if weighing up the choices before him, and Erebus could sense the growing impatience of the warp creature.
At last the Warmaster spoke again. 'Soon I shall unleash my Legions against the worlds of the Isstvan system. There I shall set my Legions upon the path of the new Crusade. There are matters that must be dealt with at Isstvan, and I will deal with them in my own way.'
Horus looked over at Erebus and said, 'When I am done with Isstvan, I will pledge my forces with those of your masters, but not until then. My Legions will go through the fire of Isstvan alone, for only then will they be tempered into my shining blade aimed at the Emperor's heart.'
The sibilant, roiling chill of Sarr'Kell's voice hissed as if he took mighty breaths.
'My masters accept,' he said at last. 'You have chosen well, Warmaster.'
The chill wind that had carried the words of the warp entity blew again, stronger this time, its ageless malevolence like the murder of innocence.
Its icy touch slid through Erebus and he drew a cold breath before the sensation faded and the unnatural darkness began to recede, the light of the fire once more illuminating the lodge temple.
The creature was gone and the void of its presence was an ache felt deep in the soul.
'Was it worth it, Warmaster?' asked Erebus, releasing the pent up breath he had been holding.
'Yes,' said Horus, glancing down at Ing Mae Sing's body. 'It was worth it.'
The Warmaster turned to Regulus and said, 'Adept, I wish the Fabricator General to be made aware of this. I cannot contact him directly, so you will take a fast ship and make for Mars. If what this creature says is true, you will make good time. Kelbor-Hal is to purge his order and make ready for its part in my new Crusade. Tell him that I shall contact him when the time comes and that I expect the Mechanicum to be united.'
'Of course, Warmaster. Your will be done.'
'Waste no time, adept. Go.'
Regulus turned to leave and Erebus said, 'We have waited a long time for this day. Lorgar will be exultant.'
'Lorgar has his own battles to fight, Erebus,' replied Horus sharply. 'Should he fail at Calth, all this will be for nothing if Guilliman's Legion is allowed to intervene. Save your celebrations for when I sit upon the throne of Terra.'
SINDERMANN FELT HIS heart lurch in his chest at the sight of Petronella's bodyguard coming towards them. The man's every step was like death approaching and Sindermann cursed himself for having taken so long to get here. His tardiness had killed the saint and would probably see them all dead as well.
Jonah Aruken's eyes widened as he saw the massive form of the saint's killer approaching. He turned quickly and said, 'Titus, grab her. Now!'
'What?' asked Cassar. 'She's hooked up to all these machines, we can't just-'
'Don't argue with me,' hissed Aruken. 'Just do it, we've got company, bad company.'
Aruken turned back to Sindermann and hissed, 'Well, iterator? Is this that single moment you were talking about, where we find out who we really are? If it is, then I'm already regretting helping you.'
Sindermann couldn't reply. He saw Maggard notice them outside Euphrati's room and felt a cold, creeping horror as a slow smile spread across the man's features. I am going to kill you, the smile said, slowly. 'Don't hurt her,' he whispered, the words sounding pathetic in his ears. 'Please...'
He wanted to run, to get far away from the evil smile that promised a silent, agonising death, but his legs were lead weights, rooted to the spot by some immense power that prevented him from moving so much as a muscle.
Jonah Aruken slid from the medicae cell, with Titus Cassar behind him, the recumbent form of Euphrati in his arms. Dripping tubes dangled from her arms and Sindermann found his gaze unaccountably drawn to the droplets as they swelled at the ends of the plastic tubes before breaking free and plummeting to the deck to splash in crowns of saline.
Aruken held his pistol out before him, aimed at Maggard's head.
'Don't come any closer,' he warned.
Maggard did not even slow down and that same deathly smile shone at Jonah Aruken.
With Euphrati still in his arms, Titus Cassar backed away from the relentlessly approaching killer.
'Come on, damn it,' he hissed. 'Let's go!'
Aruken shoved Sindermann after Cassar and suddenly the spell of immobility that had held him rooted to the spot was broken. Maggard was less than ten paces from them and Sindermann knew that they |
t before him, aimed at Maggard's head.
'Don't come any closer,' he warned.
Maggard did not even slow down and that same deathly smile shone at Jonah Aruken.
With Euphrati still in his arms, Titus Cassar backed away from the relentlessly approaching killer.
'Come on, damn it,' he hissed. 'Let's go!'
Aruken shoved Sindermann after Cassar and suddenly the spell of immobility that had held him rooted to the spot was broken. Maggard was less than ten paces from them and Sindermann knew that they could not hope to escape without bloodshed.
'Shoot him,' shouted Cassar.
'What?' asked Aruken, throwing his fellow crewman a desperate glance.
'Shoot him,' repeated Cassar. 'Kill him, before he kills us.'
Jonah Aruken tore his gaze back to the approaching Maggard and nodded, pulling the trigger twice in quick succession. The noise was deafening and the corridor was filled with blinding light and careening echoes. Tiles shattered and exploded as Aruken's bullets cratered the wall behind where Maggard had been standing.
Sindermann cried out at the noise, backing away after Titus Cassar as Maggard spun out from the sunken doorway in which he had taken cover the instant before Aruken had fired. Maggard's pistol leapt to his hand and the barrel blazed with light as he fired three times.
Sindermann cried out, throwing up his arms and awaiting the awful pain of bullets tearing into his flesh, ripping through his internal organs and blowing bloody-rimmed craters in his back.
Nothing happened and Sindermann heard a cry of astonishment from Jonah Aruken, who had likewise flinched at the thunderous noise of Maggard's gun. He lowered his arms and his mouth fell open in amazement at the sight before him.
Maggard still stood there, his muscled arm still holding his wide barrelled pistol aimed squarely at them.
A frozen bloom of light expanded at an infinitesimally slow pace from the muzzle and Sindermann could see a pair of bullets held immobile in the air before them, only the glint of light on metal as they spiralled giving any sign that they were moving at all.
As he watched, the pointed nub of a brass bullet began to emerge from the barrel of Maggard's gun and Sindermann turned in bewilderment to Jonah Aruken.
The Titan crewman was as shocked as he was, his arms hanging limply at his side.
'What the hell is going on?' breathed Aruken.
'I d-don't know,' stammered Sindermann, unable to tear his gaze from the frozen tableau standing in front of them. 'Maybe we're already dead.'
'No, iterator,' said Cassar from behind them, 'it's a miracle.'
Sindermann turned, feeling as if his entire body was numb, only his heart hammering fit to break his chest. Titus Cassar stood at the end of the corridor, the saint held tightly to his chest. Where before Euphrati had lain supine, her eyes were now wide in terror, her right hand extended and the silver eagle that had been burned into her flesh glowing with a soft, inner light.
'Euphrati!' cried Sindermann, but no sooner had he given voice to her name than her eyes rolled back in their sockets and her hand dropped to her side He risked a glance back at Maggard, but the assassin was still frozen by whatever power had saved their lives.
Sindermann took a deep breath and made his way on unsteady legs to the end of the corridor. Euphrati lay with her head against Cassar's chest, as unmoving as she had been for the last year and he wanted to weep to see her so reduced.
He reached up and ran a hand through Euphrates hair, her skin hot to the touch.
'She saved us,' said Cassar, his voice awed and humbled by what he had seen.
'I think you might be right, my dear boy,' said Sindermann. 'I think you might be right.'
Jonah Aruken joined him, alternating between casting fearful looks at Maggard and Euphrati. He kept his pistol trained on Maggard and said, 'What do we do about him?'
Sindermann looked back at the monstrous assassin and said, 'Leave him. I will not have his death on the saint's hands. What kind of beginning would it be for the Lectitio Divinitatus if the saint's first act is to kill. If we are to found a new church in the name of the Emperor it will be one of forgiveness, not bloodshed.'
'Are you sure?' asked Aruken. 'He will come after her again.'
'Then we will keep her safe from him,' said Cassar. 'The Lectitio Divinitatus has friends aboard the Vengeful Spirit and we can hide her until she recovers. Iterator, do you agree?'
'Yes, that's what to do,' nodded Sindermann, 'hide her. Keep her safe.'
FIVE
Dark Millennium
Warsinger
LOKEN HAD NOT set foot on the strategium for some time, the construction of the Lupercal's Court rendering it largely without function. In any case, an unspoken order had filtered down from the lodge members that Torgaddon and Loken were no longer to stand alongside the Warmaster and act as the Legion's conscience.
The isolated strategium platform was suspended above the industrious hubbub of the vessel's bridge, and Loken leaned over the rail to watch the senior crew of the Vengeful Spirit going about the business of destroying Isstvan Extremis.
Warriors of the Death Guard and Emperor's Children were already in the theatre of war and the enemies of the Warmaster would even now be dying. The thought of not being there to share the danger galled Loken and he wished he could be on that barren rock with his battle-brothers, especially since Torgaddon had told him that Saul Tarvitz was down there.
The last time the Sons of Horus and the Emperor's Children had met was during the war against the Technocracy and bonds of brotherhood had been re-established between the Legions, formally by the primarchs, and informally by their warriors.
He missed the times he had stood in the presence of his fellow warriors when the talk had been of campaigns past and yet to come. The shared camaraderie of brotherhood was a comfort that was only realised once it was stripped away.
He smiled wryly to himself, whispering, 'I even miss your tales of "better days", Iacton.'
Loken turned away from the bridge below and unfolded the piece of paper he had discovered inside the dust jacket of the Chronicles of Ursh.
Once again he read the words hurriedly written in Kyril Sindermann's distinctive spidery scrawl on the ragged page of a notebook.
Even the Warmaster may not deserve your trust. Look for the temple. It will be somewhere that was once the essence of the Crusade.
Remembering Sindermann's words as he had been forced from the training halls by Maloghurst, Loken had sought out the book from the burnt out stacks of Archive Chamber Three. Much of the archive was still in ruins from the fire that had gutted the chamber and put Euphrati Keeler in a coma. Servitors and menials had attempted to save as many books as they could, and even though Loken was no reader, he was saddened by the loss of such a valuable repository of knowledge.
He had located The Chronicles of Ursh with the barest minimum of effort, as if the book had been specifically placed for him to find. Opening the cover, he realised that it had indeed been left there for him, as Sindermann's note slipped from its pages.
Loken wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for, and the idea of a temple aboard the Vengeful Spirit seemed laughable, but Sindermann had been deadly serious when he had implored Loken to seek out the book and his note.
It will be somewhere that was once the essence of the Crusade.
He looked up from the note and cast his eyes around the strategium: the raised platform where the Warmaster had delivered his briefings, the niches around the edge where Sons of Horus stood as an honour guard and the vaulted dome of dark steel. Banners hung along the curved wall, indistinct in the gloom, company banners of the Sons of Horus. He hammered his fist against his breastplate as he faced the banner of the Tenth.
If anywhere was once the essence of the Crusade it was the strategium.
The strategium was empty, and it was an emptiness that spoke more of its neglect and its obsolescence than simply the absence of people. It had been abandoned and the ideals once hammered out here had been abandoned too, replaced with something else, something dark.
Loken stood in the centre of the strategium and felt an ache in his chest that was nothing to do with any physical sensation. It took him a moment to realize that there was something out of place here, something present that shouldn't be: a smell that he didn't recognize, faint but definitely hanging in the air.
At last he recognized the smell as incense, cloying, and carrying the familiar scent of hot, dry winds that brought sour fragrances of bitter blossoms. His genhanced senses could pick out the subtle aromas mixed into the incense, its scent stronger as he made his way through the strategium hoping to pinpoint its source. Where had he smelt this before?
He followed the bitter smell to the standard of the Seventh, Targost's company. Had the lodge master flown the banner in some ritual ceremony of the warrior lodge?
No, the scent was too strong for it to be simply clinging to fabric. This was the aroma of burning incense. Loken pulled the banner of the Seventh away from the wall, and he was not surprised to find that, instead of the brushed steel of the strategium wall, there was the darkness of an opening cut into one of the many access passages that threaded the Vengeful Spirit.
Had this been here when the Mournival had gathered? He didn't think so.
Look for the temple, Sindermann had said, so Loken ducked beneath the banner and through the doorway, letting the banner fall into place behind him. The smell of incense was definitely here, and it had been burned recently, or was still burning.
Loken suddenly realized where he had smelled this aroma before and he gripped the hilt of his combat knife as he remembered the air of Davin, the scents that filled the yurts and seemed to linger in the air, even through rebreathers.
The passageway be |
Look for the temple, Sindermann had said, so Loken ducked beneath the banner and through the doorway, letting the banner fall into place behind him. The smell of incense was definitely here, and it had been burned recently, or was still burning.
Loken suddenly realized where he had smelled this aroma before and he gripped the hilt of his combat knife as he remembered the air of Davin, the scents that filled the yurts and seemed to linger in the air, even through rebreathers.
The passageway beyond was dark, but Loken's augmented eyesight cut through the gloom to reveal a short passageway, recently constructed, that led to an arched doorway with curved sigils etched into the ironwork surrounding it. Although it was simply a door, Loken felt an unutterable dread of what lay beyond it and for a moment he almost considered turning back.
He shook off such a cowardly notion and made his way forwards, feeling his unease grow with every step he took. The door was closed, a stylised skull mounted at eyelevel and Loken felt uncomfortable even acknowledging that it was there let alone looking at it. Something of its brutal form whispered to the killer in him, telling him of the joy of spilling blood and the relish to be taken in slaughter.
Loken tore his eyes from the leering skull and drew his knife, fighting the urge to plunge it into the flesh of anyone waiting behind the door.
He pushed it open and stepped inside.
The space within was large, a maintenance chamber that had been had been cleared and refitted so as to resemble some underground stone chamber. Twin rows of stone benches faced the far wall, where meaningless symbols and words had been painted. Blank-eyed skulls hung from the ceiling, staring and grinning with bared teeth. They swayed gently as Loken passed them, thin tendrils of smoke rising from their eye sockets.
A low wooden table stood against the far wall. A shallow bowl carved into its surface contained flaky dark detritus that he could smell was dried blood. A thick book lay beside the depression.
Was this a temple? He remembered the bottles and glass flasks that had been scattered around the water fane beneath the Whisperheads.
This place and the fane on Sixty-Three Nineteen looked different, but they felt the same.
He heard a sudden rustle on the air, like whispers in his ear, and he spun around, his knife whipping out in front of him.
He was alone, yet the sense of someone whispering in his ear had been so real that he would have sworn on his life that another person had been standing right beside him. Loken took a breath and did a slow circuit of the room, his knife extended, on the defensive in case the mysterious whisperer revealed himself.
Bundles of torn material lay by the benches, and he made his way towards the table - the altar, he realized - upon which lay the book he had noticed earlier.
Its cover was leather, the surface cracked, old and blackened by fire.
Loken bent down to examine the book, flipping open the cover with the tip of his knife. The words written there were composed of an angular script, the letters written vertically on the page.
'Erebus,' he said as he recognized the script as identical to that tattooed upon the skull of the Word Bearer. Could this be the Book of Lorgar that Kyril Sindermann had been raving about following the fire in the archive chamber? The iterator had claimed that the book had unleashed some horror of the warp and that had been what caused the fire, but Loken saw only words.
How could words be dangerous?
Even as he formed the thought, he blinked, the words blurring on the page in front of him. The symbols twisted from the unknown language of the Word Bearers to the harsh numerical language of Cthonia, before spiraling into the elegant script of Imperial Gothic and a thousand other languages he had never seen before.
He blinked to ward off a sudden, impossible, sense of dizziness.
'What are you doing here, Loken?' a familiar voice asked in his ear.
Loken spun to face the voice, but once again he was alone. The temple was empty.
'How dare you break the trust of the Warmaster?' the voice asked, this time with a sense of weight behind it.
And this time he recognized the voice. He turned slowly and saw Torgaddon standing before the altar.
'DOWN!' YELLED TARVITZ as gunfire streaked above him, stitching monochrome explosions along the barren rock of Isstvan Extremis. 'Squad Fulgerion, with me. All squads to position and wait for the go!'
Tarvitz ran, knowing that Sergeant Fulgerion's squad would be on his heels as he made for the cover of the closest crater. A web of criss-crossing tracer fire streaked the air before the monitoring station the Isstvanians had set up on Isstvan Extremis, a tall, organ-like structure of towers, domes and antennae. Anchored on the barren rock surface by massive docking claws, the station was dusted in a powdery residue of ice crystals and particulate matter.
The Isstvan system's sun was little more than a cold disc peeking above the horizon, lining everything in a harsh blue light. Automatic gun ports spat fire at the advancing Emperor's Children, more than two hundred Astartes converging in a classic assault pattern to storm the massive blast doors of the station's eastern entrance.
Isstvan Extremis had little atmosphere to speak of and was lethally cold; only the sealed armour of the Space Marines made a ground assault possible.
Tarvitz slid into the crater, turret fire ripping up chunks of grey rock around him. Sergeant Fulgerion and his warriors, shields held high to shelter them from the fire, hit the ground to either side of him. Veterans only truly at home in the thick of the hardest fighting, Fulgerion and his squad had fought together for years and Tarvitz knew that he had some of the Legion's best warriors with him.
'They were ready for us, then?' asked Fulgerion.
'They must have known that we would return to restore compliance,' said Tarvitz. 'Who knows how long they have been waiting for us to come back.'
Tarvitz glanced over the lip of the crater, spotting purple armoured forms fanning out in front of the gates to take up their allotted positions. That was how the Emperor's Children fought, manoeuvring into position to execute perfectly co-ordinated strikes, squads moving across a battle zone like pieces on a chess board.
'Captain Garro of the Death Guard reports that he is in position,' said Eidolon's voice over the vox-net. 'Show them what war really is!'
The Death Guard had been assigned the task of taking the western approach to the station, and Tarvitz smiled as he imagined his old friend Garro marching his men grimly towards the guns, winning through relentless determination rather than any finesse of tactics. Each to their own, he thought as he drew his broadsword.
Such blunt tactics were not the way of the Emperor's Children, for war was not simply about killing, it was art.
'Tarvitz and Fulgerion in position,' he reported. 'All units ready.'
'Execute!' came the order.
'You heard Lord Eidolon,' he shouted. 'Children of the Emperor!'
The warriors around him cheered as he and Fulgerion clambered over the crater lip and gunfire streaked overhead from the support squads. A perfect ballet began with every one of his units acting in complete concert, heavy weapons pounding the enemy guns as assault units moved in to attack and tactical units took up covering positions.
Splintering explosions burst in the sub-zero air, chunks of debris blasted from the surface of the entrance dome as turret guns detonated and threw chains of bursting ammunition into the air.
A missile streaked past Tarvitz and burst against the blast doors, leaving a flaming, blackened crater in the metal. Another missile followed the first, and then another, and the doors crumpled inwards. Tarvitz saw the golden armour of Eidolon flashing in the planet's hard light, the lord commander hefting a mighty hammer with blue arcs of energy crackling around its head.
The hammer slammed into the remains of the doors, blue-white light bursting like a lightning strike as they vanished in a thunderous explosion. Eidolon charged inside the facility, the honour his by virtue of his noble rank.
Tarvitz followed Eidolon in, ducking through the wrecked blast doors.
Inside, the station was in darkness, lit only by the muzzle flashes of bolter fire and sparking cables torn from their mountings by the furious combat. Tarvitz's enhanced vision dispelled the darkness, warm air billowing from the station through the ruptured doors and white vapour surged around him as he saw the enemy for the first time.
They wore black armour with bulky power packs and thick cables that attached to heavy rifles. The plates of their armour were traced with silver scrollwork, perhaps just for decoration, perhaps a pattern of circuitry.
Their faces were hooded, each with a single red lens over one eye. A hundred of them packed the dome, sheltering behind slabs of broken machinery and furniture. The armoured soldiers formed a solid defensive line, and no sooner had Eidolon and the Emperor's Children emerged from the entrance tunnel than they opened fire.
Rapid firing bolts of ruby laser fire spat out from the Isstvanian troops, filling the dome with horizontal red rain. Tarvitz took a trio of shots, one to his chest, one to his greaves and another cracking against his helmet, filling his senses with a burst of static.
Fulgerion was ahead of him, wading through the las-fire that battered his shield. Eidolon surged forwards in the centre of the line and his hammer bludgeoned Isstvanians to death with each lethal swing. A body flew through the air, its torso a crushed ruin and its limbs shattered by the shock of the hammer's impact. The weight of enemy fire faltered and the Emperor's Children charged forward, overlapping fields of bolter fire shredding the Isstvanians' cover as close combat specialists crashed through the gaps to kill with go |
ing through the las-fire that battered his shield. Eidolon surged forwards in the centre of the line and his hammer bludgeoned Isstvanians to death with each lethal swing. A body flew through the air, its torso a crushed ruin and its limbs shattered by the shock of the hammer's impact. The weight of enemy fire faltered and the Emperor's Children charged forward, overlapping fields of bolter fire shredding the Isstvanians' cover as close combat specialists crashed through the gaps to kill with gory sweeps of chainswords.
Tarvitz's bolt pistol snapped shots at the darting black figures catching one in the throat and spinning him around. Squad Fulgerion took up position at the remains of the barricade, their bolters filling the dome with covering gunfire for Eidolon and his chosen warriors.
Tarvitz killed the enemy with brutally efficient shots and sweeps of his broadsword, fighting like a warrior of Fulgrim should. His every strike was a faultless killing blow, and his every step was measured and perfect. Gunfire ricocheted from his gilded armour and the light of battle reflected from his helmet as if from a hero of ancient legend.
'We have the entrance dome,' shouted Eidolon as the last of the Isstvanians were efficiently despatched by the Astartes around him. 'Death Guard units report heavy resistance inside. Blow the inner doors and we'll finish this for them.'
Warriors with breaching charges rushed to destroy the inner doors, and even over the flames and shots, Tarvitz could hear muffled explosions from the other side. He lowered his sword and took a moment to survey his surroundings now that there was a lull in the fighting.
A dead body lay at his feet, the plates of the man's black armour ruptured and a ragged tear ripped in the hood covering his face. Frozen blood lay scattered around him like precious stones and Tarvitz knelt to pull aside the torn cowl.
The man's skin was covered in an elaborate swirling black tattoo, echoing the silver designs on his armour. A frozen eye looked up at him, hollow and darkened, and Tarvitz wondered what manner of being had the power to force this man to renounce his oaths of loyalty to the Imperium.
Tarvitz was spared thinking of an answer by the dull thump of the interior doors blowing open. He put the dead man from his mind and set off after Eidolon as he held his hammer high and charged into the central dome. He ran alongside his fellow warriors, knowing that whatever the Isstvanians could throw at him, he was an Astartes and no weapon they had could match the will of the Emperor's Children.
Tarvitz and his men moved through the dust and smoke of the door's explosion, the autosenses of his armour momentarily useless.
Then they were through and into the heart of the Isstvan Extremis facility.
He pulled up short as he suddenly realized that the intelligence they had been given on this facility was utterly wrong.
This was not a comms station, it was a temple.
TORGADDON'S FACE WAS ashen and leathery, puckered and scarred around a burning yellow eye. Sharpened metallic teeth glinted in a lipless mouth and twin gashes were torn in the centre of his face.
A star with eight points was gouged in his temple, mirroring its golden twin etched upon his ornate, black armour.
'No,' said Loken, backing away from this terrible apparition.
'You have trespassed, Loken,' hissed Torgaddon. 'You have betrayed.'
A dry, deathly wind carried Torgaddon's words, gusting over him with the smell of burning bodies. As he breathed the noxious wind, a vision of broken steppes spread out before Loken, expanses of desolation and plains of rusted machinery like skeletons of extinct monsters. A hive city on the distant horizon split open like a flower, and from its broken, burning petals rose a mighty tower of brass that punctured the pollution-heavy clouds.
The sky above was burning and the laughter of Dark Gods boomed from the heavens. Loken wanted to scream, this vision of devastation worse than anything he had seen before.
This wasn't real. It couldn't be. He did not believe in ghosts and illusions.
The thought gave him strength. He wrenched his mind away from the dying world, and suddenly he was soaring through the galaxy, tumbling between the stars. He saw them destroyed, bleeding glowing plumes of stellar matter into the void. A baleful mass of red stars glowered above him, staring like a great and terrible eye of flame. An endless tide of titanic monsters and vast space fleets vomited from that eye, drowning the universe in a tide of blood.
A sea of burning flames spat and leapt from the blood, consuming all in its path, leaving black, barren wasteland in its wake.
Was this a vision of some lunatic's hell, a dimension of destruction and chaos where sinners went when they died? Loken forced himself to remember the lurid descriptions from the Chronicles of Ursh, the outlandish scenes described by inventions of dark faith. No, said the voice of Torgaddon, this is no madman's delusion. It is the future.
'You're not Torgaddon!' shouted Loken, shaking the whispering voice from his head. You are seeing the galaxy die. Loken saw the Sons of Horus in the tide of fiery madness that poured from the red eye, armoured in black and surrounded by leaping, deformed creatures. Abaddon was there, and Horus himself, an immense obsidian giant who crushed worlds in his gauntlets.
This could not be the future. This was a diseased distorted vision of the future.
A galaxy in which mankind was led by the Emperor could never become such a terrible maelstrom of chaos and death. You are wrong.
The galaxy in flames receded and Loken scrabbled for some solidity, something to reassure him that this terrifying vision could never come to pass. He was tumbling again, his vision blurring until he opened his eyes and found himself in Archive Chamber Three, a place he had felt safe, surrounded by books that rendered the universe down to pure logic and kept the madness locked up in crude pagan epics where it belonged.
But something was wrong, the books were burning around him, this purest of knowledge being systematically destroyed to keep the masses ignorant of their truths. The shelves held nothing but flames and ash, the heat battering against Loken as he tried to save the dying books. His hands blistered and blackened as he fought to save the wisdom of ancient times, the flesh peeling back from his bones.
The music of the spheres. The mechanisms of reality, invisible and all around...
Loken could see it where the flames burned through, the endless churning mass of the warp at the heart of everything and the eyes of dark forces seething with malevolence. Grotesque creatures cavorted obscenely among heaps of corpses, horned heads and braying, goat-like faces twisted by the mindless artifice of the warp. Bloated monsters, their bodies heaving with maggots and filth, devoured dead stars as a brass-clad giant bellowed an endless war cry from its throne of skulls and soulless magicians sacrificed billions in a silver city built of lies.
Loken fought to tear his sight from this madness. Remembering the words he had thrown in Horus Aximand's face at the Delphos Gate, he screamed them aloud once more:
'I will not bow to any fane or acknowledge any spirit. I own only the empirical clarity of Imperial Truth!'
In an instant, the walls of the dark temple slammed back into place around him, the air thick with incense, and he gasped for breath. Loken's heart pumped wildly and his head spun, sick with the effort of casting out what he had seen.
This was not fear. This was anger.
Those who came to this fane were selling out the entire human race to dark forces that lurked unseen in the depths of the warp. Were these the same forces that had infected Xavyer Jubal? The same forces that had nearly killed Sindermann in the ship's archive?
Loken felt sick as he realized that everything he knew about the warp was wrong.
He had been told that there were no such things as gods.
He had been told that there was nothing in the warp but insensate, elemental power.
He had been told that the galaxy was too sterile for melodrama.
Everything he had been told was a lie.
Feeding on the strength his anger gave him, Loken lurched towards the altar and slammed the ancient book closed, snapping the brass hasp over the lock. Even shut, he could feel the terrible purpose locked within its pages. The idea that a book could have some sort of power would have sounded ludicrous to Loken only a few months ago, but he could not doubt the evidence of his own senses, despite the incredible, terrifying, unimaginable things he had seen and heard. He gathered up the book and clutching it under one arm, turned and made his way from the fane.
He closed the door and eased past the banner of the Seventh, emerging once more into the secluded darkness of the strategium.
Sindermann had been right. Loken was hearing the music of the spheres, and it was a terrible sound that spoke of corruption, blood and the death of the universe.
Loken knew with utter certainty that it was up to him to silence it.
THE INTERIOR OF the Isstvan Extremis facility was dominated by a wide, stepped pyramid, its huge stone blocks fashioned from a material that clearly had no place on such a world. Each block came from some other building, many of them still bearing architectural carvings, sections of friezes, gargoyles or even statues jutting crazily from the structure
Isstvanian soldiers swarmed around the base of the pyramid, fighting in desperate close quarters battle with the steel-armoured figures of the Death Guard. The battle had no shape, the art of war having given way to the grinding brutality of simple killing.
Tarvitz's gaze was drawn from the slaughter to the very top of the pyramid, where a bright light spun and twisted around a half-glimpsed figure surrounded by keening harmonics.
'Attack!' bellowed Eidolon, charging forwards as the tip of the spear, |
ian soldiers swarmed around the base of the pyramid, fighting in desperate close quarters battle with the steel-armoured figures of the Death Guard. The battle had no shape, the art of war having given way to the grinding brutality of simple killing.
Tarvitz's gaze was drawn from the slaughter to the very top of the pyramid, where a bright light spun and twisted around a half-glimpsed figure surrounded by keening harmonics.
'Attack!' bellowed Eidolon, charging forwards as the tip of the spear, assault units the killing edges around him. Tarvitz forgot about the strange figure and followed the lord commander, driving Eidolon forwards by covering him and holding off enemies who tried to surround him.
More Emperors' Children stormed into the dome and the battle at the base of the pyramid. Tarvitz saw Lucius beside Eidolon, the swordsman's blade shining like a harnessed star.
It was typical that Lucius would be at the front, demonstrating that he would rise swiftly through the ranks and take his place alongside Eidolon as the Legion's best. Tarvitz slashed his weapon left and right, needing no skill to kill these foes, simply a strong sword arm and the will to win. He clambered onto the first level of the pyramid, fighting his way up its side through rank after rank of black armoured foes.
He stole a glance towards the top of the pyramid, seeing the burnished Death Guard warriors climbing ahead of him to reach the figure at the summit.
Leading the Death Guard was the familiar, brutal form of Nathaniel Garro, his old friend forging upwards with powerful strides and his familiar grim determination. Even amid the furious battle, Tarvitz was glad to be fighting alongside his sworn honour brother once again. Garro forced his way towards the top of the pyramid, aiming his charge towards the glowing figure that commanded the battlefield.
Long hair whipped around it, and as sheets of lightning arced upwards, Tarvitz saw that it was a woman, her sweeping silk robes lashing like the tendrils of some undersea creature.
Even above the chaos of battle, he could hear her voice and it was singing.
The force of the music lifted her from the pyramid, suspending her above the pinnacle on a song of pure force. Hundreds of harmonies wound impossibly over one another, screeching notes smashing together as they ripped from her unnatural throat. Stones flew from the pyramid's summit, spiraling towards the dome's ceiling as her song broke apart the warp and waft of reality.
As Tarvitz watched, a single discordant note rose to the surface in a tremendous crescendo, and an explosion blew out a huge chunk of the pyramid, massive blocks of stone tumbling in the currents of light. The pyramid shuddered and stones crashed down amongst the Emperor's Children, crushing some and knocking many more from its side.
Tarvitz fought to keep his balance as portions of the pyramid collapsed in a rumbling landslide of splintered stone and rubble. The armoured body of a Death Guard slithered down the slope towards a sheer drop into the falling masonry and Tarvitz saw that it was the bloodied form of Garro.
He scrambled across the disintegrating pyramid and leapt towards the drop, catching hold of the warrior's armour and dragging him towards firmer ground.
Tarvitz pulled Garro away from the fighting, seeing that his friend was badly wounded. One leg was severed at mid thigh and portions of his chest and upper arm were crushed. Frozen, coagulated blood swelled like blown glass around his injuries and shards of stone jutted from his abdomen.
'Tarvitz!' growled Garro, his anger greater than his pain. 'It's a Warsinger. Don't listen.'
'Hold on, brother,' said Tarvitz. 'I'll be back for you,'
'Just kill it,' spat Garro.
Tarvitz looked up, seeing the Warsinger closer as she drifted towards the Emperor's Children. Her face was serene and her arms were open as if to welcome them, her eyes closed as she drew the terrible song from her.
Yet more blocks of stone were lifting from the pyramid around the Emperor's Children. Tarvitz saw one warrior - Captain Odovocar, the Bearer of the Legion banner - dragged from his feet and into the air by the Warsinger's chorus. His armour jerked as if torn at by invisible fingers, sparking sheets of ceramite peeling back as the Warsinger's power took it apart.
Odovocar came apart with it, his helmet ripping free and trailing glittering streamers of blood and bone as it took his head off.
As Odovocar died, Tarvitz was struck by the savage beauty of the song, a song he felt she was singing just for him. Beauty and death were captured in its discordant notes, the wonderful peace that would come if he just gave himself up to it and let the music of oblivion take him. War would end and violence wouldn't even be a memory. Don't listen to it.
Tarvitz snarled and his bolt pistol kicked in his hand as he fired at the Warsinger, the sound of the shots drowned by the cacophony. Shells impacted against a sheath of shimmering force around the Warsinger, blooms of white light exploding around her as they detonated prematurely. More and more of the Astartes, Emperor's Children and Death Guard both, were being pulled up into the air and sonically dismembered, and Tarvitz knew they didn't have much time before their cause was lost.
The surviving Isstvanian soldiers were regrouping, storming up the pyramid after the Astartes. Tarvitz saw Lucius among them, sword slashing black-armoured limbs from bodies as they fought to surround him.
Lucius could look after himself and Tarvitz forced himself onwards, struggling to keep his footing amid the chaos of the Warsinger's wanton destruction. Gold gleamed ahead of him and he saw Eidolon's armour shining like a beacon in the Warsinger's light. The lord commander bellowed in defiance and pulled himself up the last few levels of the pyramid as Tarvitz climbed to join him.
The Warsinger drew a shining caul of light around her and Eidolon plunged into it, the glare becoming opaque like a shining white shell. Tarvitz's pistol was empty, so he dropped it, taking a two handed grip on his sword and following his lord commander into the light.
The deafening shrieks of the Warsinger filled his head with deathly unmusic, rising to a crescendo as he penetrated the veil of light.
Eidolon was on his knees, his hammer lost and the Warsinger hovering over him. Her hands stretched out in front of her as she battered Eidolon with waves of force strong enough to distort the air.
Eidolon's armour warped around him, his helmet ripped from his head in a wash of blood, but he was still alive and fighting.
Tarvitz charged, screaming, 'For the Emperor!'
The Warsinger saw him and smashed him to the floor with a dismissive flick of her wrist. His helmet cracked with the force of the impact and for a moment his world was filled with the awful beauty of the Warsinger's song. His vision returned in time for him to see Eidolon lunging forwards. His charge had bought Eidolon a momentary distraction, the harmonics of her song redirected for the briefest moment.
The briefest moment was all a warrior of the Emperor's Children needed.
Eidolon's eyes were ablaze, his hatred and revulsion at this foe clear as his mouth opened in a cry of rage. His mouth opened still wider and he let loose his own screeching howl. Tarvitz rolled onto his back, dropping his sword and clutching his hands to his ears at the dreadful sound. Where the Warsinger's song had layered its death in beguiling beauty, there was no such grace in the sonic assault launched by Eidolon, it was simply agonizing, deafening volume.
The crippling noise smashed into the Warsinger and suddenly her grace was torn away. She opened her mouth to sing a fresh song of death, but Eidolon's scream turned her cries into a grim dirge.
Sounds of mourning and pain layered over one another into a heavy funereal drone as the Warsinger dropped to her knees. Eidolon bent and picked up Tarvitz's fallen broadsword, his own terrible scream now silenced. The Warsinger writhed in pain, arcing coils of light whipping from her as she lost control of her song.
Eidolon waded through the light and noise. The broadsword licked out and Eidolon cut the Warsinger's head from her shoulders with a single sweep of silver.
Finally the Warsinger was silent.
Tarvitz clung to the crumbling summit of the pyramid and watched as Eidolon raised the sword in victory, still trying to understand what he had seen.
The Warsinger's monstrous harmonies still rang in his head, but he shook them off as he stared in disbelief at the lord commander.
Eidolon turned to Tarvitz, and dropped the broadsword beside him.
'A good blade,' he said. 'My thanks for your intervention.'
'How...?' was all Tarvitz could muster, his senses still overcome with the deafening shriek Eidolon had unleashed.
'Strength of will, Tarvitz,' said Eidolon. 'That's what it was, strength of will. The bitch's damn magic was no match for a pair of warriors like us, eh?'
'I suppose not,' said Tarvitz, accepting a hand up from Eidolon. The dome was suddenly, eerily silent. The Isstvanians who still lived were slumped where they had fallen at the Warsinger's death, weeping and rocking back and forth like children at the loss of a parent.
'I don't understand-' he began as warriors of the Death Guard started securing the dome.
'You don't need to understand, Tarvitz,' said Eidolon. 'We won, that's what matters.'
'But what you did-'
'What I did was kill our enemies,' snapped Eidolon. 'Understood?'
'Understood,' nodded Tarvitz, although he no more understood Eidolon's newfound ability than he did the celestial mechanics of traveling through the warp.
Eidolon said, 'Kill any remaining enemy troops. Then destroy this place,' before turning and making his way down the shattered pyramid to the cheers of his warriors.
Tarvitz retrieved his fallen weapons and watched the aftermath of victory unfolding below him. The Astartes were reg |
I did was kill our enemies,' snapped Eidolon. 'Understood?'
'Understood,' nodded Tarvitz, although he no more understood Eidolon's newfound ability than he did the celestial mechanics of traveling through the warp.
Eidolon said, 'Kill any remaining enemy troops. Then destroy this place,' before turning and making his way down the shattered pyramid to the cheers of his warriors.
Tarvitz retrieved his fallen weapons and watched the aftermath of victory unfolding below him. The Astartes were regrouping and he made his way back down to where he had left the wounded Garro.
The captain of the Death Guard was sitting propped up against the side of the pyramid, his chest heaving with the effort of breathing and Tarvitz could see it had taken a supreme effort of will not to let the pain balms of his armour render him unconscious.
'Tarvitz, you're alive,' said Garro as he climbed down the last step.
'Just about,' he said. 'More than can be said for you.'
'This?' sneered Garro. 'I've had worse than this. You mark my words, lad, I'll be up and teaching you a few new tricks in the training cages again before you know it.'
Despite the strangeness of the battle and the lives that had been lost, Tarvitz smiled.
'It is good to see you again, Nathaniel,' said Tarvitz, leaning down and taking Garro's proffered hand. 'It has been too long since we fought together.'
'It has that, my honour brother,' nodded Garro, 'but I have a feeling we will have plenty of opportunities to fight as one before this campaign is over.'
'Not if you keep letting yourself get injured like this. You need an apothecary.'
'Nonsense, boy, there's plenty worse than me that need a sawbones first.'
'You never did learn to accept that you'd been hurt did you?' smiled Tarvitz.
'No,' agreed Garro. 'It's not the Death Guard way, is it?'
'I wouldn't know,' said Tarvitz, waving over an Emperor's Children apothecary despite Garro's protests. 'You're too barbarous a Legion for me to ever understand.'
'And you're a bunch of pretty boys, more concerned with looking good than getting the job done,' said Garro, rounding off the traditional insults that passed for greetings between them. Both warriors had been through too much in their long friendship and saved each other's lives too many times to allow formality and petty differences between their Legions to matter.
Garro jerked his thumb in the direction of the summit. 'You killed her?'
'No,' said Tarvitz. 'Lord Commander Eidolon did.'
'Eidolon, eh?' mused Garro. 'Never did have much time for him. Still, if he managed to bring her down, he's obviously learned a thing or two since I last met him.'
'I think you might be right,' said Tarvitz.
SIX
The soul of the Legion
Everything will be different
Abomination
LOKEN FOUND ABADDON in the observation dome that blistered from the hull of the upper decks of the Vengeful Spirit, the transparent glass looking out onto the barren wasteland of Isstvan Extremis. The dome was quiet and dark, a perfect place for reflection and calm, and Abaddon looked out of place, his power and energy like that of a caged beast poised to attack.
'Loken,' said Abaddon as he walked into the chamber. 'You summoned me here?'
'I did.'
'Why?' demanded Abaddon.
'Loyalty,' said Loken simply.
Abaddon snorted. 'You don't know the meaning of the word. You have never had it tested.'
'Like you did on Davin?'
'Ah,' sighed Abaddon, 'so that is what this is about. Don't think to lecture me, Loken. You couldn't have taken the steps we did to save the Warmaster.'
'Maybe I'm the only one who took a stand.'
'Against what? You would have allowed the Warmaster to die rather than accept that there might be something in this universe you don't understand?'
'I am not here to debate what happened on Davin,' said Loken, already feeling that he had lost control of the conversation.
'Then why are you here? I have warriors to make ready, and I won't waste time with you on idle words.'
'I called you here because I need answers. About this,' said Loken, casting the book he had taken from the fane behind the strategium onto the mosaic floor of the observation dome.
Abaddon stooped to retrieve the book. In the hands of the first captain, it looked tiny, like one of Ignace Karkasy's pamphlets.
'So you're a thief now,' said Abaddon.
'Do not dare speak to me of such things, Ezekyle, not until you have given me answers. I know that Erebus conspired against us. He stole the anathame from the interex and brought it to Davin. I know it and you know it.'
'You know nothing, Loken,' sneered Abaddon. 'What happens in this Crusade happens for the good of the Imperium. The Warmaster has a plan.'
'A plan?' said Loken. 'And this plan requires the murder of innocent people? Hektor Varvarus? Ignace Karkasy? Petronella Vivar?'
'The remembrancers?' laughed Abaddon. 'You really care about those people? They are lesser people, Loken, beneath us. The Council of Terra wants to drown us in these petty bureaucrats to stifle us and strangle our ambitions to conquer the galaxy.'
'Erebus,' said Loken, trying to keep his anger in check, 'why was he on the Vengeful Spirit?'
Abaddon crossed the width of the observation dome in a second. 'None of your damn business.'
'This is my Legion!' shouted Loken. 'That makes it my damn business.'
'Not any more.'
Loken felt his choler rise and clenched his hands into murderous fists.
Abaddon saw the tension in him and said, 'Thinking of settling this like a warrior?'
'No, Ezekyle,' said Loken through clenched teeth. 'Despite all that has happened, you are still my Mournival brother and I will not fight you.'
'The Mournival,' nodded Abaddon. 'A noble idea while it lasted, but I regret ever bringing you in. In any case, if it came down to bloodshed do you really think you could beat me?'
Loken ignored the taunt and said, 'Is Erebus still here?'
'Erebus is a guest on the Warmaster's flagship,' said Abaddon. 'You would do well to remember that. If you had joined us when you had the chance instead of turning your back on us, you would have all your answers, but that's the choice you made, Loken. Live with it.'
'The lodge has brought something evil into our Legion, Ezekyle, maybe the other Legions too, something from the warp. It's what killed Jubal and it's what took Temba on Davin. Erebus is lying to all of us!'
'And we're being used, is that right? Erebus is manipulating us all towards a fate worse than death?' spat Abaddon. 'You know so little. If you understood the scale of the Warmaster's designs then you would beg us to take you back.'
'Then tell me, Ezekyle, and maybe I'll beg. We were brothers once and we can be again.'
'Do you really believe that, Loken? You've made it plain enough that you're against us. Torgaddon said as much.'
'For my Legion, for my Warmaster, there is always a way back,' replied Loken, 'as long as you feel the same.'
'But you'll never surrender, eh?'
'Never! Not when the soul of my Legion is at stake.'
Abaddon shook his head. 'We tie ourselves in such knots because men like you are too proud to make compromises.'
'Compromise will be the death of us, Ezekyle.'
'Forget this until after Isstvan, Loken,' ordered Abaddon. 'After Isstvan, this will end.'
'I will not forget it, Ezekyle. I will have my answers,' snarled Loken, turning and walking away from his brother.
'If you fight us, you'll lose,' promised Abaddon.
'Maybe,' replied Loken, 'but others will stand against you.'
'Then they will die too.'
'THANK YOU ALL for coming,' said Sindermann, overwhelmed and a little afraid at the number of people gathered before him. 'I appreciate that you have all taken a great risk to be here, but this is too much.'
Crammed into a dark maintenance space, filthy with grease and hemmed in by low hissing pipe work, the faithful had come from all over the ship to hear the saint's words, mistakenly believing that she was awake. Amongst the crowd, Sindermann saw the uniforms of Titan crewmen, fleet maintenance workers, medical staff, security personnel, and even a few Imperial Army troopers. Men with guns guarded the entrances to the maintenance space and their presence served as a stark reminder of the danger they were in just by being here.
Such a large gathering was dangerous, too easily noticed, and Sindermann knew that he had to disperse them quickly before they were discovered, and do it in such a way as not to incite a riot.
'You have escaped notice thus far thanks to the size of your gatherings, but so many cannot avoid notice for long,' continued Sindermann. 'You will no doubt have heard many strange and wonderful things recently, and I hope you will forgive me for putting you in harm's way.'
The news of Keeler's rescue had spread quickly through the ship. It had been whispered among the grime-covered ratings, it had been communicated through the remembrancer order with the rapidity of an epidemic and it had reached the ears of even the lowliest member of the expedition. Embellishments and wild rumour followed in the wake of the news and tales abounded of the saint and her miraculous powers, incredible stories of bullets turned aside and of visions of the Emperor speaking directly to her in order to show His people the way.
'What of the saint?' asked a voice from the crowd. 'We want to see her!'
Sindermann held up a hand and said, 'The saint is fortunate to be alive. She is well, but she still sleeps. Some of you have heard that she is awake, and that she has spoken, but regrettably this is not the case.'
A disappointed buzz spread throughout the crowd, angry at Sindermann's denial of what many of them desperately wanted to believe. Sindermann was reminded of the speeches he had given on newly-compliant worlds, where he had used his iterator's wiles to extol the virtues of the Imperial Truth.
Now he had to use those same skills to give these people hope.
'The saint still sleeps, it's true, but for one brief, shining moment she arose from h |
she has spoken, but regrettably this is not the case.'
A disappointed buzz spread throughout the crowd, angry at Sindermann's denial of what many of them desperately wanted to believe. Sindermann was reminded of the speeches he had given on newly-compliant worlds, where he had used his iterator's wiles to extol the virtues of the Imperial Truth.
Now he had to use those same skills to give these people hope.
'The saint still sleeps, it's true, but for one brief, shining moment she arose from her slumbers to save my life. I saw her eyes open and I know that when we need her, she will come back to us. Until then we must walk warily, for there are those in the fleet who would destroy us for our beliefs. The very fact that we must meet in secret and rely on armed guards to keep us safe is a reminder that Maloghurst himself regularly sends troops to break up the meetings of the Lectitio Divinitatus. People have been killed and their blood is on the hands of the Astartes. Ignace Karkasy, Emperor rest his soul, knew the dangers of an unchecked Astartes before any of us realised their hands were around our throats.
'Once, I could not believe in such things as saints. I had trained myself to accept only logic and science, and to cast aside religion as superstition. Magic and miracles were impossible, simply the invention of ignorant people struggling to understand their world. It took the sacrifice of the saint to show me how arrogant I was. I saw how the Emperor protects, but she has shown me that there is so much more than that, for, if the Emperor protects His faithful, who protects the Emperor?' Sindermann let the question hang.
'We must,' said Titus Cassar, pushing his way towards the front of the crowd and turning to address them. Sindermann had placed Cassar in the crowd with specific instructions on when to speak - a basic ploy of the iterators to reinforce their message.
'We must protect the Emperor, for there is no one else,' said Cassar. The moderati looked back at Sindermann. 'But we must stay alive in order to do so. Is that not right, iterator?'
'Yes,' said Sindermann. 'The faith that this congregation has displayed has caused such fear in the higher echelons of the fleet that they are trying to destroy us. The Emperor has an enemy here; of that I am sure. We must survive and we must stand against that enemy when it finally reveals itself.'
Worried and angry murmurings spread through the crowd as the deadly nature of the threat sank in. 'Faithful friends,' said Sindermann, 'the dangers we face are great, but the saint is with us and she needs shelter. Shelter we can best achieve alone, but watch for the signs and be safe. Spread the word of her safety.'
Cassar moved through the congregation, instructing them to return to their posts. Reassured by Sindermann's words, they gradually began to disperse. As he watched them go, Sindermann wondered how many of them would live through the coming days.
THE GALLERY OF Swords ran the length of the Andronius like the ship's gilded spine. Its roof was transparent and the space beneath was lit by the fire of distant stars. Hundreds of statues lined the gallery, heroes of the Emperor's Children with gemstone eyes and stern expressions of judgement. The worth of a hero was said to be measured by how long he could meet their gaze while walking the length of the Gallery of Swords beneath their unforgiving eyes.
Tarvitz held his head high as he entered the gallery, though he knew he was no hero, simply a warrior who did his best. Chapter Masters and commanders from long ago glared at him, their names and noble countenances known and revered by every warrior of the Emperor's Children. Entire wings of the Andronius were given over to the fallen battle-brothers of the Legion, but it was here that every warrior hoped to be remembered.
Tarvitz had no expectation of his visage ending up here, but he would strive to end his days in a manner that might be considered worthy of such an honour. Even if such a lofty goal was impossible, it was something to aspire to.
Eidolon stood before the graven image of Lord Commander Teliosa, the hero of the Madrivane Campaign, and even before Tarvitz drew near he turned to face him.
'Captain Tarvitz,' said Eidolon. 'I have rarely seen you here.'
'It is not my natural habitat, commander,' replied Tarvitz. 'I leave the heroes of our Legion to their rest.'
'Then what brings you here now?'
'I would speak with you if you would permit me.'
'Surely your time is better spent attending to your warriors, Tarvitz. That is where your talents lie.'
'You honour me by saying so, commander, but there is something I need to ask you.'
'About?'
'The death of the Warsinger.'
'Ah,' Eidolon looked up at the statue towering over them, the hollow eyes regarding them with a cold, unflinching gaze. 'She was quite an adversary; absolutely corrupt, but that corruption gave her strength.'
'I need to know how you killed her.'
'Captain? You speak as if to an equal.'
'I saw what you did, commander,' Tarvitz pressed. 'That scream, it was some... I don't know... some power I've never heard of before.'
Eidolon held up a hand. 'I can understand why you have questions, and I can answer them, but perhaps it would be better for me to show you. Follow me.'
Tarvitz followed the lord commander as they walked further down the Gallery of Swords, turning into a side passage with sheets of parchment pinned along the length of its walls. Accounts of glorious actions from the Legion's past were meticulously recorded on them and novices of the Legion were required to memorise the many different battles before their elevation to full Astartes.
The Emperor's Children did more than just remember their triumphs; they proclaimed them, because the perfection of the Legion's way of war deserved celebrating.
'Do you know why I fought the Warsinger?' asked Eidolon.
'Why?'
'Yes, captain, why.'
'Because that is how the Emperor's Children fight.'
'Explain.'
'Our heroes lead from the front. The rest of the Legion is inspired to follow their example. They can do this because the Legion fights with such artistry that they are not rendered vulnerable by fighting at the fore.'
Eidolon smiled. 'Very good, captain. I should have you instruct the novices. And you yourself, would you lead from the front?'
Sudden hope flared in Tarvitz's breast. 'Of course! Given the chance, I would. I had not thought you considered me worthy of such a role.'
'You are not, Tarvitz. You are a file officer and nothing more,' said Eidolon, crashing his faint hope that he had been about to be offered a way of proving his mettle as a leader and a hero.
'I say this not as an insult,' Eidolon continued, apparently oblivious to the insult it clearly was. 'Men like you fulfil an important role in our Legion, but I am one of Fulgrim's chosen. The primarch chose me and elevated me to the position I now hold. He looked upon me and saw in me the qualities needed to lead the Emperor's Children. He looked upon you, and did not. Because of this, I understand the responsibilities that come with being Fulgrim's chosen in a way that you cannot, Captain Tarvitz.'
Eidolon led him to a grand staircase that curved downwards into a large hall tiled with white marble. Tarvitz recognised it as one of the entrances to the ship's apothecarion, where the injured from Isstvan Extremis had been brought only a few hours before.
'I think you underestimate me, lord commander,' said Tarvitz, 'but understand that for the sake of my men I must know-'
'For the sake of our men we all make sacrifices,' snapped Eidolon. 'For the chosen, those sacrifices are great. Foremost among these is that fact that everything is secondary to victory.'
'Commander, I don't understand.'
'You will,' said Eidolon, leading him through a gilded archway and into the central apothecarion.
'THE BOOK?' ASKED Torgaddon.
'The book,' repeated Loken. 'It's the key. Erebus is on the ship, I know it.'
The ashen darkness of Archive Chamber Three was one of the few places left on the Vengeful Spirit where Loken felt at home, remembering many a lively debate with Kyril Sindermann in simpler times. Loken had not seen the iterator for weeks and he fervently hoped that the old man was safe, that he had not fallen foul of Maloghurst or his faceless soldiers.
'Abaddon and the others must be keeping him safe,' said Torgaddon.
Loken sighed. 'How did it come to this? I would have given my life for Abaddon, Aximand, too, and I know they would have done the same for me.'
'We can't give up on this, Garviel. There will be a way out of this. We can bring the Mournival back together, or at least make sure the Warmaster sees what Erebus is doing.'
'Whatever that is.'
'Yes, whatever that is. Guest of the lodge or not, he's not welcome on my ship. He's the key. If we find him, we can expose what's going on to the Warmaster and end this.'
'You really believe that?'
'I don't know, but that won't stop me trying.'
Torgaddon looked around him, stirring the ashes of the charred books on the shelves with a finger and said, 'Why did you have to meet me here? It smells like a funeral pyre.'
'Because no one ever comes here,' said Loken.
'I can't imagine why, seeing as how pleasant it is.'
'Don't be flippant, Tarik, not now. The Great Crusade was once about bringing illumination to the far corners of the galaxy, but now it is afraid of knowledge. The more we learn, the more we question and the more we question the more we see through the lies perpetrated upon us. To those who want to control us, books are dangerous.'
'Iterator Loken,' laughed Torgaddon, 'you've enlightened me.'
'I had a good teacher,' said Loken, again thinking of Kyril Sindermann, and the fact that everything he had been taught to believe was being shaken to its core. 'And there's more at stake here than a split between Astartes. It's... It's philosophy, ideology, religion even... everything. Kyril taught m |
and the more we question the more we see through the lies perpetrated upon us. To those who want to control us, books are dangerous.'
'Iterator Loken,' laughed Torgaddon, 'you've enlightened me.'
'I had a good teacher,' said Loken, again thinking of Kyril Sindermann, and the fact that everything he had been taught to believe was being shaken to its core. 'And there's more at stake here than a split between Astartes. It's... It's philosophy, ideology, religion even... everything. Kyril taught me that this kind of blind obedience is what led to the Age of Strife. We've crossed the galaxy to bring peace and illumination, but the cause of our downfall could be right here amongst us.'
Torgaddon leaned over and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. 'Listen, we're about to go into battle on Isstvan III and the word from the Death Guard is that the enemy is led by some kind of psychic monsters that can kill with a scream. They're not the enemy because they read the wrong books or anything like that; they're the enemy because the Warmaster tells us they are. Forget about all this for a while. Go and fight. That'll put some perspective on things.'
'Do you even know if we'll be headed down there?'
'The Warmaster's picked the squads for the speartip. We're in it, and it looks as if we'll be in charge, too.'
'Really? After all that's happened?
'I know, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.'
'At least I'll have the Tenth with me.'
Torgaddon shook his head. 'Not quite. The Warmaster hasn't chosen the speartip by company. It's squad by squad.'
'Why?'
'Because he thinks that confused look on your face is funny.'
'Please. Be serious, Tarik.'
Torgaddon shrugged. 'The Warmaster knows what he's doing. It won't be an easy battle. We'll be dropping right on top of the city.'
'What about Locasta?'
'You'll have them. I don't think you could have held Vipus back anyway. You know what he's like, he'd have stowed away on a drop-pod if he'd been left out. He's like you, he needs to clear his head with a good dose of fighting. After Isstvan things will get back to normal.'
'Good. I'll feel a lot better with Locasta backing us up.'
'Well, it's true that you need the help,' smiled Torgaddon.
Loken chuckled, not because Torgaddon was actually funny, but because even after everything he was still the same, a person that he could trust and a friend he could rely on.
'You're right, Tarik,' said Loken. 'After Isstvan everything will be different.'
THE CENTRAL APOTHECARION gleamed with glass and steel, dozens of medical cells branching off from the circular hub of the main laboratory. Tarvitz felt a chill travel the length of his spine as he saw Captain Odovocar's ruined body suspended in a stasis tank, waiting for its gene-seed to be harvested.
Eidolon marched through the hub and down a tiled corridor that led into a gilded vestibule dominated by a huge mosaic depicting Fulgrim's victory at Tarsus, where the primarch had vanquished the deceitful eldar despite his many grievous wounds. Eidolon reached up and pressed one of the enamelled chips that formed Fulgrim's belt, standing back as the mosaic arced upwards, revealing a glowing passageway and winding spiral staircase beyond. Eidolon strode down the passageway, indicating that Tarvitz should follow him.
The lack of ornamentation was a contrast to the rest of the Andronius and Tarvitz saw a cold blue glow emanating from whatever lay below as he made his way down the stairs. As they reached the end of their descent, Eidolon turned to him and said, 'This, Captain Tarvitz, is your answer.'
The blue light shone from a dozen ceiling-high translucent cylinders that stood against the sides of the room. Each was filled with liquid with indistinct shapes suspended in them - some roughly humanoid, some more like collections of organs or body parts. The rest of the room was taken up by gleaming laboratory benches covered in equipment, some with purposes he couldn't even begin to guess at.
He moved from tank to tank, repulsed as he saw that some were full of monstrously bloated flesh that was barely contained by the glass.
'What is this?' asked Tarvitz in horror at such grotesque sights.
'I fear my explanations would be insufficient,' said Eidolon, walking towards an archway leading into the next room. Tarvitz followed him, peering more closely at the cylinders as he passed. One contained an Astartes-sized body, but not a corpse, more like something that had never been born, its features sunken and half-formed.
Another cylinder contained only a head, but one which had large, multi-faceted eyes like an insect. As he looked closer, Tarvitz realised with sick horror that the eyes had not been grafted on, for he saw no scars and the skull had reshaped itself to accommodate them. They had been grown there. He moved on to the last cylinder, seeing a mass of brains linked by fleshy cables held in liquid suspension, each one with extra lobes bulging like tumours.
Tarvitz felt a profound chill coming from the next room, its walls lined with refrigerated metal cabinets. He briefly wondered what was in them, but decided he didn't want to know as his imagination conjured all manner of deformities and mutations. A single operating slab filled the centre of the room, easily large enough for an Astartes warrior to be restrained upon, with a chirurgeon device mounted on the ceiling above.
Neatly cut sections of muscle fibre were spread across the slab. Apothecary Fabius bent over them, the hissing probes and needles of his narthecium embedded in a dark mass of glistening meat.
'Apothecary,' said Eidolon, 'the captain wishes to know of our enterprise.'
Fabius looked up in surprise, his long intelligent face framed by a mane of fine blond hair. Only his eyes were out of place, small and dark, set into his skull like black pearls. He wore a floor-length medicae gown, blood streaking its pristine whiteness with runnels of crimson.
'Really?' said Fabius. 'I had not been made aware that Captain Tarvitz was among our esteemed company.'
'He is not,' said Eidolon. 'Not yet anyway.'
'Then why is he here?'
'My own alterations have come to light.'
'Ah, I see,' nodded Fabius.
'What is going on here?' asked Tarvitz sharply. 'What is this place?'
Fabius cocked an eyebrow. 'So you have seen the results of the commander's augmentations, have you?'
'Is he a psyker?' demanded Tarvitz.
'No, no, no!' laughed Fabius. 'He is not. The lord commander's abilities are the result of a tracheal implant combined with alteration in the gene-seed rhythms. He is something of a success. His powers are metabolic and chemical, not psychic.'
'You have altered the geneseed?' breathed Tarvitz in shock. 'The gene-seed is the blood of our primarch... When he discovers what you are doing here...'
'Don't be naive, captain,' said Fabius. 'Who do you think ordered us to proceed?'
'No,' said Tarvitz. 'He wouldn't-'
'That is why I had to show you this, captain,' said Eidolon. 'You remember the Cleansing of Laeran?'
'Of course,' answered Tarvitz.
'Our primarch saw what the Laer had achieved by chemical and genetic manipulation of their biological structure in their drive for physical perfection. The Lord Fulgrim has great plans for our Legion, Tarvitz: the Emperor's Children cannot be content to sit on their laurels while our fellow Astartes win the same dull victories. We must continue to strive towards perfection, but we are fast reaching the point where even an Astartes cannot match the standards Lord Fulgrim and the Warmaster demand. To meet those standards, we must change. We must evolve.'
Tarvitz backed away from the operating slab. 'The Emperor created Lord Fulgrim to be the perfect warrior and the Legion's warriors were moulded in his image. That image is what we strive towards. Holding a xenos race up as an example of perfection is an abomination!'
'An abomination?' said Eidolon. 'Tarvitz, you are brave and disciplined, and your warriors respect you, but you do not have the imagination to see where this work can lead us. You must realise that the Legion's supremacy is of greater importance than any mortal squeamishness.'
Such a bold statement, its arrogance and conceit beyond anything he had heard Eidolon say before, stunned Tarvitz to silence.
'But for your unlikely presence at the death of the Warsinger, you would never have been granted this chance, Tarvitz,' said Eidolon. 'Understand it for the opportunity it represents.'
Tarvitz looked up at the lord commander sharply. 'What do you mean?'
'Now you know what we are attempting, perhaps you are ready to become a part of this Legion's future instead of simply one of its line officers.'
'It is not without risk,' Fabius pointed out, 'but I could work such wonders upon your flesh. I can make you more than you are, I can bring you closer to perfection.'
'Think of the alternative,' said Eidolon. 'You will fight and die knowing that you could have been so much more.'
Tarvitz looked at the two warriors before him, both Fulgrim's chosen and both exemplars of the Legion's relentless drive towards perfection.
He saw then that he was very, very far from perfection as they understood it, but for once welcomed such a failing, if failing it was.
'No,' he said, backing away. 'This is... wrong. Can you not feel it?'
'Very well,' said Eidolon. 'You have made your choice and it does not surprise me. So be it. You must leave now, but you are ordered not to speak of what you have seen here. Return to your men, Tarvitz. Isstvan III will be a tough fight.'
'Yes, commander,' said Tarvitz, relieved beyond measure to be leaving this chamber of horrors.
Tarvitz saluted and all but fled the laboratory, feeling as though the specimens suspended in the tanks were watching him as he went.
As he emerged into the brightness of the apothecarion, he could not shake the feeling that he had just been tested.
Whether he had passed or failed was another matter entirely.
SEVEN
Th |
ave seen here. Return to your men, Tarvitz. Isstvan III will be a tough fight.'
'Yes, commander,' said Tarvitz, relieved beyond measure to be leaving this chamber of horrors.
Tarvitz saluted and all but fled the laboratory, feeling as though the specimens suspended in the tanks were watching him as he went.
As he emerged into the brightness of the apothecarion, he could not shake the feeling that he had just been tested.
Whether he had passed or failed was another matter entirely.
SEVEN
The God Machine
A favour
Subterfuge
THE COLD SENSATION snaking through Cassar's mind was like an old friend, the touch of something reassuring. The metallic caress of the Dies Irae as its cortical interfaces meshed with his consciousness would have been terrifying to most people, but it was one of the few constants Moderati Titus Cassar had left in the galaxy.
That and the Lectitio Divinitatus.
The Titan's bridge was dim, lit by ghostly readouts and telltales that lined the ornate bridge in hard greens and blues. The Mechanicum had been busy, sending cloaked adepts into the Titan, and the bridge was packed with equipment he didn't yet know the purpose of. The deck crew manning the plasma reactor at the war machine's heart had been readying the Titan for battle since the Vengeful Spirit arrived in the Isstvan system, and every indication was that the Dies Irae's major systems were all functioning better than ever.
Cassar was glad of any advantage the war machine could get, but somewhere deep down he resented the thought of anyone else touching the Titan. The interface filaments coiled deeper into his scalp, sending an unexpected chill through him. The Titan's systems lit up behind Cassar's eyes as though they were a part of his own body. The plasma reactor was ticking over quietly, its pent-up energy ready to erupt into full battle order at his command.
'Motivation systems are a little loose,' he said to himself, tightening the pressure on the massive hydraulic rams in the Titan's torso and legs.
'Weapons hot, ammunition loaded,' he said, knowing that it would take no more than a thought to unleash them.
He had come to regard the power and magnificence of the Dies Irae as the Emperor personified. Cassar had resisted the thought at first, mocking Jonah Aruken's insistence that the Titan had a soul, but it had become more and more obvious why he had been chosen by the saint.
The Lectitio Divinitatus was under threat and the faithful had to be defended. He almost laughed aloud as the thought formed, but what he had seen on the Medicae deck had only deepened the strength of his conviction that he had chosen the right path.
The Titan was a symbol of that strength, an avatar of divine wrath, a god-machine that brought the Emperor's judgment to the sinners of Isstvan.
'The Emperor protects,' whispered Cassar, his voice drifting down through the layers of readouts in his mind, 'and he destroys.'
'Does he now?'
Cassar snapped out of his thoughts and the Titan's systems retreated beneath his consciousness. He looked up in sudden panic, but let out a relieved breath as he saw Moderati Aruken standing over him.
Aruken snapped a switch and the bridge lights flickered to life. 'Be careful who hears you, Titus, now more than ever.'
'I was running through pre-battle checks,' said Cassar.
'Of course you were, Titus. If Princeps Turnet hears you saying things like that you'll be for it.'
'My thoughts are my own, Jonah. Not even the princeps can deny me that.'
'You really believe that? Come on, Titus. You know full well this cult stuff isn't welcome. We were lucky on the Medicae deck, but this is bigger than you and me and it's getting too dangerous.'
'We can't back away from it now,' said Cassar, 'not after what we saw.'
'I'm not even sure what I saw,' said Aruken defensively.
'You're joking, surely?'
'No,' insisted Aruken, 'I'm not. Look, I'm telling you this because you're a good man and the Dies Irae will suffer if you're not here. She needs a good crew and you're part of it.'
'Don't change the subject,' said Cassar. 'We both know that what we saw on the Medicae deck was a miracle. You have to accept that before the Emperor can enter your heart.'
'Listen, I've been hearing some scuttlebutt on the deck, Titus,' said Aruken, leaning closer. 'Turnet's been asking questions: about us. He's asking about how deep this runs, as though we're part of some hidden conspiracy. It's as if he doesn't trust us any more.'
'Let him come.'
'You don't understand. When we're in battle we're a good team, and if we get... I don't know... thrown in a cell or worse, that team gets broken up and there isn't a better crew for the Dies Irae than us. Don't let this saint business break that up. The Crusade will suffer for it.'
'My faith won't allow me to make compromises, Jonah.'
'Well that's all it is,' snapped Aruken. 'Your faith.'
'No,' said Titus, shaking his head. 'It's your faith too, Jonah, you just don't know it yet.'
Aruken didn't answer and slumped into his own command chair, nodding at the readouts in front of Cassar. 'How's she looking?'
'Good. The reactor is ticking over smoothly and the targeting is reacting faster than I've seen it in a while. The Mechanicum adepts have been tinkering so there are a few more bells and whistles to play with.'
'You say that as if it's a bad thing, Titus. The Mechanicum know what they're doing. Anyway, the latest news is that we've got twelve hours to go before the drop. We're going in with the Death Guard on support duties. Princeps Turnet will brief us in a few hours, but it's basically pounding the ground and scaring the shit out of the enemy. Sound good?'
'It sounds like battle.'
'It's all the same thing for the Dies Irae when the bullets are flying,' said Aruken.
'THIS REMINDS ME of why I was so proud,' said Loken, looking at the speartip assembling on the Vengeful Spirit's embarkation deck. 'Joining the Mournival, and just to be a part of this.'
'I am still proud,' said Torgaddon. 'This is my Legion. That hasn't changed.'
Loken and Torgaddon, fully armoured and ready for the drop, stood at the head of a host of Astartes. More than a third of the Legion was there, thousands of warriors arrayed for war. Loken saw veterans alongside newly inducted novices, assault warriors with chainswords and bulky jump packs, and devastators hefting heavy bolters and lascannons.
Sergeant Lachost was speaking with his communications squad, making sure they understood the importance of keeping a link with the Vengeful Spirit once they were down in the Choral City.
Apothecary Vaddon was checking and re-checking his medical gear, the narthecium gauntlet with its cluster of probes and the reductor that would harvest gene-seeds from the fallen.
Iacton Qruze, who had been a captain for so long that he was as old as an Astartes could be and still count himself a warrior, was lecturing some of the more recent inductees on the past glories of the Legion that they had to live up to.
'I'd be happier with the Tenth,' said Loken, returning his attention to his friend.
'And I with the Second,' replied Torgaddon, 'but we can't always have what we want.'
'Garvi!' called a familiar voice. Loken turned and saw Nero Vipus approaching them, leaving the veterans of Locasta to continue their preparations for the drop. 'Nero,' said Loken, 'good to have you with us.' Vipus clapped Loken's shoulder guard with the augmetic hand that had replaced the organic one he'd lost on Sixty-Three Nineteen. 'I wouldn't have missed this,' he said.
'I know what you mean,' replied Loken. It had been a long time since they had lined up on the Vengeful Spirit as brothers, ready to fight the Emperor's good fight. Nero Vipus and Loken were the oldest of friends, back from the barely remembered blur of training, and it was reassuring to have another familiar face alongside him.
'Have you heard the reports from Isstvan Extremis?' asked Vipus, his eyes alight.
'Some of them.'
'They say the enemy has got some kind of psychic leadership caste and that their soldiers are fanatics. My choler's up just thinking about it.'
'Don't worry,' said Torgaddon. 'I'm sure you'll kill them all.'
'It's like Davin again,' said Vipus, baring his teeth in a grimace of anticipation.
'It's not like Davin,' said Loken. 'It's nothing at all like Davin.'
'What do you mean?'
'It's not a bloody swamp, for a start,' interjected Torgaddon.
'It would be an honour if you'd go into battle with Locasta, Garvi,' said Vipus expectantly. 'I have a space in the drop-pod.'
'The honour is mine,' replied Loken, taking his friend's hand as a sudden thought occurred to him. 'Count me in.'
He nodded to his friends and made his way through the bustling Astartes towards the solitary figure of Iacton Qruze. The Half-heard watched the preparations for war with undisguised envy and Loken felt a stab of sympathy for the venerable warrior. Qruze was an example of just how little even the Legion's apothecaries knew of an Astartes' physiology. His face was as battered and gnarled as ancient oak, but his body was as wolf-tough, honed by years of fighting and not yet made weary by age.
An Astartes was functionally immortal, meaning that only in death did duty end, and the thought sent a chill down Loken's spine.
'Loken,' acknowledged Qruze as he saw him approach.
'You're not coming down to see the sights of the Sirenhold with us?' asked Loken.
'Alas, no,' said Qruze. 'I am to stay and await orders. I haven't even got a place in the order of battle for the pacification force.'
'If the Warmaster has no plans for you, Iacton, then I have something you could do for me,' said Loken, 'if you would do me the honour?'
Qruze's eyes narrowed. 'What sort of a favour?'
'Nothing too arduous, I promise you.'
'Then ask.'
'There are some remembrancers aboard, you may have heard of them: Mersadie Oliton, Euphrati Keeler and Kyril Sindermann?'
'Yes, I know of them,' confirmed Qruze. ' |
nd await orders. I haven't even got a place in the order of battle for the pacification force.'
'If the Warmaster has no plans for you, Iacton, then I have something you could do for me,' said Loken, 'if you would do me the honour?'
Qruze's eyes narrowed. 'What sort of a favour?'
'Nothing too arduous, I promise you.'
'Then ask.'
'There are some remembrancers aboard, you may have heard of them: Mersadie Oliton, Euphrati Keeler and Kyril Sindermann?'
'Yes, I know of them,' confirmed Qruze. 'What of them?'
'They are... friends of mine and I would consider it an honour if you were to seek them out and ask after them. Check on them and make sure that they are well.'
'Why do these mortals matter to you, captain?'
'They keep me honest, Iacton,' smiled Loken, 'and they remind me of everything we ought to be as Astartes.'
'That I can understand, Loken,' replied Qruze. 'The Legion is changing, boy. I know you've heard. We bore you with this before, but I feel in my bones that there's something big just over the horizon that we can't see. If these people help keep us honest, then that's good enough for me. Consider it done, Captain Loken.'
'Thank you, Iacton,' said Loken. 'It means a lot to me.'
'Don't mention it boy,' grinned Qruze. 'Now get out of here and kill for the living.'
'I will,' promised Loken, taking Qruze's wrist in the warrior's grip.
'Speartip units to posts,' said the booming voice of the deck officer.
'Good hunting in the Sirenhold,' said Qruze. 'Lupercal!'
'Lupercal!' echoed Loken.
As he jogged towards Locasta's drop-pod, it almost felt as if the events of Davin were forgotten and Loken was just a warrior again, fighting a crusade that had to be won and an enemy that deserved to die.
It took war to make him feel like one of the Sons of Horus again.
'TO VICTORY!' SHOUTED Lucius.
The Emperor's Children were so certain of the perfection of their way of war that it was traditional to salute the victory before it was won. Tarvitz was not surprised that Lucius led the salute; many senior officers attended the pre-battle celebration and Lucius was keen to be noticed. The Astartes seated at the lavish banquet around him joined his salute, their cheers echoing from the alabaster walls of the banqueting hall. Captured banners, honoured weapons once carried by the Chosen of Fulgrim and murals of heroes despatching alien foes hung from the walls, glorious reminders of past victories.
The primarch himself was not present, thus it fell to Eidolon to take his place at the feast, exhorting his fellow Astartes to celebrate the coming victory. Lucius was equally vocal, leading his fellow warriors in toasts from golden chalices of fine wine.
Tarvitz set down his goblet and rose from the table.
'Leaving already, Tarvitz?' sneered Eidolon.
'Yes!' chimed in Lucius. 'We've only just begun to celebrate!'
'I'm sure you will do enough celebrating for both of us, Lucius,' said Tarvitz. 'I have matters to attend to before we make the drop.'
'Nonsense!' said Lucius. 'You need to stay with us and regale us with memories of Murder and how I helped you defeat the scourge of the megarachnids.'
The warriors cheered and called for Tarvitz to tell the story once more, but he held up his hands to quiet their demands.
'Why don't you tell it, Lucius?' asked Tarvitz. 'I don't think I build your part up enough for your liking anyway.'
'That's true,' smiled Lucius. 'Very well, I'll tell the tale.'
'Lord commander,' said Tarvitz, bowing to Eidolon and then turning to make his way through the golden door of the banquet hall. Appealing to Lucius's vanity was the surest way of deflecting his attention. Tarvitz would miss the camaraderie of the celebration, but he had other matters pressing on his thoughts.
He closed the door to the banqueting hall as Lucius began the tale of their ill-fated expedition to Murder, though its horrifying beginnings had somehow become a great triumph, largely thanks to Lucius, if past retellings were anything to go by.
The magnificent processional at the heart of the Andronius was quiet, the droning hum of the vessel reassuring in its constancy. The ship, like many in the Emperor's Children fleet, resembled some ancient palace of Terra, reflecting the Legion's desire to infuse everything with regal majesty.
Tarvitz made his way through the ship, passing wondrous spaces that would make the shipwrights of Jupiter weep with awe, until he reached the Hall of Rites, the circular chamber where the Emperor's Children underwent the oaths and ceremonies that tied them to their Legion. Compared to the rest of the ship, the hall was dark, but it was no less magnificent: marble columns supporting a distant domed ceiling, and ritual altars of marble glittering in pools of shadow at its edges.
Fulgrim's Chosen had pledged themselves to the primarch's personal charge here, and he had accepted his appointment as captain before the Altar of Service. The Hall of Rites replaced opulence with gravity, and seemed designed to intimidate with the promise of knowledge hidden from all but the Legion's most exalted officers.
Tarvitz paused on the threshold, seeing the unmistakable shape of Ancient Rylanor, his dreadnought body standing before the Altar of Devotion.
'Enter,' said Rylanor in his artificial voice.
Tarvitz cautiously approached the Ancient, his blocky outline resolving into a tank-like square sarcophagus supported on powerful piston legs. The dreadnought's wide shoulders mounted an assault cannon on one arm and a huge hydraulic fist on the other. Rylanor's body rotated slowly on its central axis to face Tarvitz, turning from the Book of Ceremonies that lay open on the altar.
'Captain Tarvitz, why are you not with your warriors?' asked Rylanor. The vision slit that housed his ocular circuits regarded Tarvitz without emotion.
'They can celebrate well enough without me,' said Tarvitz. 'Besides, I have sat through one too many renditions of Lucius's tales to think I'll miss much.'
'It is not to my taste either,' said Rylanor, a grating bark of electronic noise sounding from the dreadnought's vox-unit. At first Tarvitz thought the Ancient had developed a fault, until he realized that the sound was Rylanor's laughter.
Rylanor was the Legion's Ancient of Rites, and when not on the battlefield he oversaw the ceremonies that marked the gradual ascent of an Astartes from novice to Chosen of Fulgrim.
Decades before, Rylanor had been wounded beyond the skill of the Legion's apothecaries while fighting the duplicitous eldar, and had been interred in a dreadnought war machine that he might continue to serve. Along with Lucius and Tarvitz, Rylanor was one of the senior officers being sent down to take the Choral City's palace complex.
'I wish to speak with you, revered Ancient,' said Tarvitz, 'about the drop.'
'The drop is in a few hours,' replied Rylanor. 'There is little time.'
'Yes, I have left it too late and for that I apologize, but it concerns Captain Odovocar.'
'Captain Odovocar is dead, killed on Isstvan Extremis.'
'And the Legion lost a great warrior that day,' nodded Tarvitz. 'Not only that, but he was to function as Eidolon's senior staff officer aboard the Andronius, relaying the commander's orders to the surface. With his death there is no one to fulfill that role.'
'Eidolon is aware of Odovocar's loss. He will have an alternative in place.'
'I request the honour of fulfilling that role,' said Tarvitz solemnly. 'I knew Odovocar well and would consider it a fitting tribute to finish the work he began on this campaign.'
The dreadnought leaned close to Tarvitz, the cold metallic machine unreadable, as the crippled warrior within decided Tarvitz's fate.
'You would renounce the honour of your place in the speartip to take over his duties?'
Tarvitz looked into Rylanor's vision slit, struggling to keep his expression neutral. Rylanor had seen everything the Legion had gone through since the beginning of the Great Crusade and was said to be able to perceive a lie the instant it was told.
His request to remain aboard the Andronius was highly unusual and Rylanor would surely be suspicious of his motives for not wanting to go into the fight. But when Tarvitz had learned that Eidolon was not leading the speartip personally, he knew there had to be a reason. The lord commander never passed up the opportunity to flaunt his martial prowess and for him to appoint another in his stead was unheard of.
Not only that, but the deployment orders Eidolon had issued made no sense.
Instead of the normal, rigorously regimented order of battle that was typical of an Emperor's Children assault, the units chosen to make the first attack appeared to have been picked at random. The only thing they had in common was that none were from Chapters led by Eidolon's favoured lord commanders. For Eidolon to sanction a drop without any of the warriors belonging to those lord commanders was unheard of and grossly insulting.
Something felt very wrong about this drop and Tarvitz couldn't shake the feeling that there was some grim purpose behind the selection of these units. He had to know what it was.
Rylanor straightened and said, 'I shall see to it that you are replaced. This is a great sacrifice you make, Captain Tarvitz. You do the memory of Odovocar much honour with it.'
Tarvitz fought to hide his relief, knowing that he had taken an unthinkable risk in lying to Rylanor. He nodded and said, 'My thanks, Ancient'
'I shall join the troops of the speartip,' said the dreadnought. 'Their feasting will soon be complete and I must ensure that they are ready for battle.'
'Bring perfection to the Choral City,' said Tarvitz.
'Guide us well,' replied Rylanor, his voice loaded with unspoken meaning. Tarvitz was suddenly certain that the dreadnought wanted Tarvitz to remain on the ship.
'Do the Emperor's work, Captain Tarvitz,' ordered Rylanor.
Tarvitz saluted and said, 'I will,' as Rylanor set off across the Hall of Rit |
join the troops of the speartip,' said the dreadnought. 'Their feasting will soon be complete and I must ensure that they are ready for battle.'
'Bring perfection to the Choral City,' said Tarvitz.
'Guide us well,' replied Rylanor, his voice loaded with unspoken meaning. Tarvitz was suddenly certain that the dreadnought wanted Tarvitz to remain on the ship.
'Do the Emperor's work, Captain Tarvitz,' ordered Rylanor.
Tarvitz saluted and said, 'I will,' as Rylanor set off across the Hall of Rites towards the banquet, his every step heavy and pounding.
Tarvitz watched him go, wondering if he would ever see the Ancient again.
THE DORMITORIES TUCKED into the thick walls running the length of the gantry were dark and hot, and from the doorway Mersadie could see down into the engine compartment where the crew were indistinguishable, sweating figures who worked in the infernal heat and ruddy glow of the plasma reactors. They hurried across gangways that stretched between the titanic reactors and clambered along massive conduits that hung like spider webs in the hellish gloom.
She dabbed sweat from her brow at the heat and close confines of the engine space, unused to the searing air that stole away her breath and left her faint.
'Mersadie,' said Sindermann coming to meet her along the gantry. The iterator had lost weight, his dirty robes hanging from his already spare frame, but his face was alight with the relief and joy of seeing her. The two embraced in a heartfelt hug, both grateful beyond words to see each other. She felt tears pricking her eyes at the sight of the old man, unaware until this moment of how much she had missed him.
'Kyril, it's so good to see you again,' she sobbed. 'You just vanished. I thought they'd got to you. I didn't know what had happened to you.'
'Hush, Mersadie,' said Sindermann, 'it's all right. I'm so sorry I couldn't send word to you at the time. You must understand that I had no choice, I would have done everything I could to keep you out of this, but I don't know what to do any more. We can't keep her down here forever.'
Mersadie looked through the doorway of the dormitory room they stood outside, wishing she had the courage to believe as Kyril did. 'Don't be ridiculous, Kyril. I'm glad you made contact, I thought... I thought Maloghurst or Maggard had killed you.'
'Maggard very nearly did,' said Sindermann, 'but the saint saved us.'
'She saved you?' asked Mersadie. 'How?'
'I don't know exactly, but it was just like in the Archive Chamber. The power of the Emperor was in her. I saw it, Mersadie, just as sure as you're standing here before me. I wish you could have seen it.'
'I wish that too,' she said, surprised to find that she meant it.
She entered the dormitory and stared down at the still form of Euphrati Keeler on the thin cot bed, looking for all the world as if she was simply sleeping. The small room was cramped and dirty, with a thin blanket spread on the deck beside the bed.
Winking starlight streamed in through a small porthole vision block, something greatly prized this deep in the ship, and without asking, she knew that someone had happily volunteered to give up their prized room for the use of the 'saint' and her companion.
Even down here in the dark and the stink, faith flourished.
'I wish I could believe,' said Mersadie, watching the rhythmic rise and fall of Euphrati's chest.
Sindermann said, 'You don't?'
'I don't know,' she said, shaking her head. 'Tell me why I should? What does believing mean to you, Kyril?'
He smiled and took her hand. 'It gives me something to hold on to. There are people on this ship who want to kill her, and somehow... don't ask me how, I just know that I need to keep her safe.'
'Are you're not afraid?' she asked.
'Afraid?' he said. 'I've never been more terrified in my life, my dear, but I have to hope that the Emperor is watching over me. That gives me strength and the will to face that fear.'
'You are a remarkable man, Kyril.'
'I'm not remarkable, Mersadie,' said Sindermann, shaking his head. 'I was lucky. I saw what the saint did, so faith is easy for me. It's hardest for you, for you have seen nothing. You have to simply accept that the Emperor is working through Euphrati, but you don't believe, do you?'
Mersadie turned from Sindermann and pulled her hand from his, looking through the porthole at the void of space beyond. 'No. I can't. Not yet.'
A white streak shot across the porthole like a shooting star.
Another followed it, and then another.
'What's that?' she asked.
Sindermann leaned over to get a better look through the porthole.
Even through his exhaustion, she could see the strength in him that she had previously taken for granted and she blink-clicked the image, capturing the defiance and bravery she saw in his features.
'Drop-pods,' he said, pointing at a static gleaming object stark against the blackness and closer to Isstvan III. Tiny sparks began raining from its underside towards the planet below.
'I think that's the Andronius, Fulgrim's flagship,' said Sindermann. 'Looks like the attack we've been hearing about has begun. Imagine how it would be if we could watch it unfolding.'
Euphrati groaned and the attack on Isstvan III was forgotten as they slid across to sit beside her. Mersadie saw Sindermann's love for her clearly as he mopped her brow, her skin so clean that it practically shone.
For the briefest moment, Mersadie saw how people could believe Euphrati was miraculous; her body so pale and fragile, yet untouched by the world around her. Mersadie had known Keeler as a gutsy woman, never afraid to speak her mind or bend the rules to get the magnificent picts for which she was rightly famed, but now she was something else entirely. 'Is she coming round?' asked Mersadie. 'No,' said Sindermann sadly. 'She makes noises, but she never opens her eyes. It's such a waste. Sometimes I swear she's on the brink of waking, but then she sinks back down into whatever hell she's going through in her head.' Mersadie sighed and looked back out into space. The pinpoints of light streaked in their hundreds towards Isstvan III.
As the speartip was driven home, she whispered, 'Loken...'
THE CHORAL CITY was magnificent.
Its design was a masterpiece of architecture, light and space so wondrous that Peeter Egon Momus had begged the Warmaster not to assault so brutally. Older by millennia than the Imperium that had come to claim it in the name of the Emperor, its precincts and thoroughfares were soon to become blood-slick battlefields.
While the juggernaut of compliance had made the galaxy a sterile, secular place, the Choral City remained a city of the gods.
The Precentor's Palace, a dizzying creation of gleaming marble blades and arches that shone in the sun, opened like a vast stone orchid to the sky and the polished granite of the city's wealthiest districts clustered around it like worshippers. Momus had described the palace as a hymn to power and glory, a symbol of the divine right by which Isstvan III would be ruled.
Further out from the palace and beyond the architectural perfection of the Choral City, vast multi-layered residential districts sprawled. Connected by countless walkways and bridges of glass and steel, the avenues between them were wide canyons of tree-lined boulevards in which the citizens of the Choral City lived.
The city's industrial heartland rose like climbing skeletons of steel against the eastern mountains, belching smoke as they churned out weapons to arm the planet's armies. War was coming and every Isstvanian had to be ready to fight.
But no sight in the Choral City compared to the Sirenhold.
Not even the magnificence of the palace outshone the Sirenhold, its towering walls defining the Choral City with their immensity. The brutal battlements diminished everything around them, and the sacred fortress of the Sirenhold humbled even the snow-capped peaks of the mountains. Within its walls, enormous tomb-spires reached for the skies, their walls encrusted with monumental sculptures that told the legends of Isstvan's mythical past.
The legends told that Isstvan himself had sung the world into being with music that could still be heard by the blessed Warsingers, and that he had borne countless children with whom he populated the first ages of the world. They became night and day, ocean and mountain, a thousand legends whose breath could be felt in every moment of every day in the Choral City.
Darker carvings told of the Lost Children, the sons and daughters who had forsaken their father and been banished to the blasted wasteland of the fifth planet, where they became monsters that burned with jealousy and raised black fortresses from which to brood upon their expulsion from paradise.
War, treachery, revelation and death; all marched around the Sirenhold in endless cycles of myth, the weight of their meaning pinning the Choral City to the soil of Isstvan III and infusing its every inhabitant with their sacred purpose.
The gods of Isstvan III were said to sleep in the Sirenhold, whispering their murderous plots in the nightmares of children and ancients.
For a time, the myths and legends had remained as distant as they had always been, but now they walked among the people of the Choral City, and every breath of wind shrieked that the Lost Children had returned.
Without knowing why, the populace of Isstvan III had armed and unquestioningly followed the orders of Vardus Praal to defend their city. An army of well-equipped soldiers awaited the invasion they had long been promised was coming in the western marches of the city, where the Warsingers had sung a formidable web of trenches into being.
Artillery pieces parked in the gleaming canyons of the city pointed their barrels westwards, set to pound any invaders into the ground before they reached the trenches. The warriors of the Choral City would then slaughter any that survived in carefully prepared crossfire.
The defens |
d their city. An army of well-equipped soldiers awaited the invasion they had long been promised was coming in the western marches of the city, where the Warsingers had sung a formidable web of trenches into being.
Artillery pieces parked in the gleaming canyons of the city pointed their barrels westwards, set to pound any invaders into the ground before they reached the trenches. The warriors of the Choral City would then slaughter any that survived in carefully prepared crossfire.
The defenses had been meticulously planned, protecting the city from attack from the west, the only direction in which an invasion could be launched.
Or so the soldiers manning the defenses had been told.
The first omen was a fire in the sky that came with the dawn.
A scattering of falling stars streaked through the blood-red dawn, burning through the sky like fiery tears.
The sentries in the trenches saw them falling in bright spears of fire, the first burning object smashing into the trenches amid a plume of mud and flame.
At the speed of thought, the word raced around the Choral City that the Lost Children had returned, that the prophecies of myth were coming true.
They were proven right when the drop-pods burst open and the Astartes of the Death Guard Legion emerged.
And the killing began.
PART TWO
THE CHORAL CITY
EIGHT
Soldiers from hell
Butchery
Betrayal
'THIRTY SECONDS!' YELLED Vipus, his voice barely audible over the screaming jets as the drop-pod sliced through Isstvan III's atmosphere. The Astartes of Locasta were bathed in red light and for a moment Loken imagined what they would look like to the people of the Choral City when the assault began - warriors from another world, soldiers from hell.
'What's our landing point looking like?' shouted Loken.
Vipus glanced at the readout on a pict-screen mounted above his head. 'Drifting! We'll hit the target, but off-centre. I hate these things. Give me a stormbird any day!'
Loken didn't bother replying, barely able to hear Nero as the atmosphere thickened beneath the drop-pod and the jets on its underside kicked in. The drop-pod shuddered and began heating up as the enormous forces pushing against it turned to fire and noise.
He sat through the last few minutes while everything around him was noise, unable to see the enemy he was about to fight and relinquishing control over his fate until the drop-pod hit.
Nero had been right when he said he had preferred an assault delivered by stormbird, the precise, surgical nature of an airborne assault far preferable to a warrior than this hurtling descent from above.
But the Warmaster had decided that the speartip would be deployed by drop-pod, reasoning - rightly, Loken admitted - that thousands of Astartes smashing into the defenders' midst without warning would be more psychologically devastating. Loken ran through the moment the drop-pod would hit in his mind, preparing himself for when the hatch charges would blow open.
He gripped his bolter tightly, and checked for the tenth time that his chainsword was in its scabbard at his side. Loken was ready.
'Ten seconds, Locasta,' shouted Vipus.
Barely a second later, the drop-pod impacted with such force that Loken's head snapped back and suddenly the noise was gone and everything went black.
LUCIUS KILLED HIS first foe without even breaking stride.
The dead man's armour was like glass, shimmering and iridescent, and his halberd's blade was fashioned from the same reflective substance. A mask of stained glass covered his face, the mouth represented by leading and filled with teeth of gemlike triangles.
Lucius slid his sword clear, blood smoking from its edge, as the soldier slumped to the floor. A curved arch of marble shone red in the dawn's early light above him and a swirl of dust and debris drifted around the drop-pod he had just leapt from.
The Precentor's Palace stood before him, vast and astonishing, a stone flower with the spire at its centre like a spectacular twist of overlapping granite petals.
More drop-pods hammered into the ground behind him, the plaza around the palace's north entrances the main objective of the Emperor's Children. A nearby drop-pod blew open and Ancient Rylanor stepped from its red-lit interior, his assault cannon already cycling and tracking for targets. 'Nasicae!' yelled Lucius. 'To me!' Lucius saw a flash of coloured glass from inside the palace, movement beyond the sweeping stone panels of the entrance hall.
More palace guards reacted to the sudden, shocking assault, but contrary to what Lucius had been expecting, they weren't screaming or begging for mercy. They weren't even fleeing, or standing stock still, numb with shock.
With a terrible war cry the palace guard charged and Lucius laughed, glad to be facing a foe with some backbone. He leveled his sword and ran towards them, Squad Nasicae following behind him, weapons at the ready.
A hundred palace guardians ran at them, resplendent in their glass armour. They formed a line before the Astartes, levelled their halberds, and opened fire.
Searing needles of silver filled the air around Lucius, gouging the armour of his shoulder guard and leg. Lucius lifted his sword arm to shield his head and the needles spat from the glowing blade of his sword. Where they hit the stone around the entrance it bubbled and hissed like acid.
One of Nasicae fell beside Lucius, one arm molten and his abdomen bubbling.
'Perfection and death!' cried Lucius, running through the white-hot silver needles. The Emperor's Children and the Palace Guard clashed with a sound like a million windows breaking the terrible screaming of the halberd-guns giving way to the clash of blade against armour and point-blank bolter fire.
Lucius's first sword blow hacked through a halberd shaft and tore through the throat of the man before him. Sightless glass eyes glared back at him, blood pumping from the guard's ruined throat, and Lucius tore the helm from his foe's head to better savour the sensation of his death.
A plasma pistol spat a tongue of liquid fire that wreathed an enemy soldier from head to foot, but the man kept fighting, sweeping his halberd down to cut deep into one of Lucius's men before another Astartes ripped off his head with a chainsword.
Lucius pivoted on one foot from a halberd strike and hammered the hilt of his sword into his opponent's face, feeling a tight anger that the faceplate held. The guard staggered away from him and Lucius reversed his grip and thrust the blade through the gap between the glass plates at the guard's waist, feeling the blade's energy field burning through abdomen and spine.
These guards were slowing the Emperor's Children down, buying precious moments with their lives for something deeper in the palace. As much as Lucius was revelling in the sensations of the slaughter, the smell of the blood, the searing stink of flesh as the heat of his blade scorched it and the pounding of blood in veins, he knew he could not afford to give the defenders such moments.
Lucius ran onwards, slicing his blade through limbs and throats as he ran. He fought as though following the steps of an elaborate dance, a dance where he played the part of the victor and the enemy were there only to die. The Palace Guard were dying around him and his armour was drenched with their blood. He laughed in sheer joy. Warriors still fought behind him, but Lucius had to press on before the palace guard was able to stall their advance with more men in front of them.
'Squad Quemondil! Rethaerin! Kill these and then follow me!'
Fire sawed from every direction as the Emperor's Children forced their way towards the junction Lucius had reached. The swordsman darted his head past the corner, seeing a vast indoor seascape. A plume of water cascaded through a hole in the centre of a colossal granite dome, and a shaft of pink light fell alongside the water, sending brilliant rainbows of colour between the arches formed by the petals of the dome's surface.
Islands rose from the indoor sea that took up most of the dome, each topped by picturesque follies of white and gold.
Thousands of palace guards massed in the dome, splashing towards them through the waist-deep sea and taking up positions among the follies. Most wore the glassy armour of the men still dying behind Lucius, but many others were clad in far more elaborate suits of bright silver. Others still were wrapped in long streamers of silk that rippled behind them like smoke as they moved.
Rylanor emerged into the dome behind Lucius, his assault cannon smoking and the chisel-like grips of his power fist thick with blood.
'They're massing,' spat Lucius. 'Where are the damned World Eaters?'
'We shall have to win the palace by ourselves,' replied Rylanor, his voice grating from deep within his sarcophagus.
Lucius nodded, pleased that they would be able to shame the World Eaters. 'Ancient, cover us. Emperor's Children, break and cover fire! Nasicae, keep up this time!'
Ancient Rylanor stepped out from the junction and a spectacular wave of fire sheared through the air around him, a storm of heavy caliber shell casings and oil-soaked fumes streaming from the cannon mounted on his shoulder.
His explosive fire shredded the stone of the foremost island's follies, broken and bloodied bodies tumbling from the shattered wreckage.
'Go!' shouted Lucius, but the Emperor's Children were already charging, their training so thorough that every warrior already knew his place in the complex pattern of overlapping fire and movement that sent the strike force sweeping into the dome.
Savage joy lit up Lucius's face as he charged the thrill of battle and the sensations of killing stimulating his body with wondrous excess.
In a swirling cacophony of noise, the perfection of death had come to the Choral City.
ON THE SOUTHERN SIDE of the palace, a strange organically formed building clung to the side of the palace like a parasite, its bulging, liquid shape more |
is place in the complex pattern of overlapping fire and movement that sent the strike force sweeping into the dome.
Savage joy lit up Lucius's face as he charged the thrill of battle and the sensations of killing stimulating his body with wondrous excess.
In a swirling cacophony of noise, the perfection of death had come to the Choral City.
ON THE SOUTHERN SIDE of the palace, a strange organically formed building clung to the side of the palace like a parasite, its bulging, liquid shape more akin to something that had been grown than something built. Its pale marble was threaded with dark veins and the masses of its battlements hung like ripened fruit. From the expanse of marble monument slabs marking the passing of the city's finest and most powerful citizens, it was clear that this was a sacred place.
Known as the Temple of the Song, it was a memorial to the music that Father Isstvan had sung to bring all things into existence. It was also the objective of the World Eaters. The word that the invasion had begun was already out by the time the first World Eaters' drop-pods crashed into the plaza, shattering gravestones and throwing slabs of marble into the air. Strange music keened through the morning air, calling the people of the Choral City from their homes and demanding that they take up arms. The soldiers from the nearby city barracks grabbed their guns as the Warsingers appeared on the battlements of the Temple to sing the song of death for the invaders.
Called by the Warsingers' laments, the people of the city gathered in the streets and streamed towards the battle.
The World Eaters' strike force was led by Captain Ehrlen, and as he emerged from his drop-pod, he was expecting the trained soldiers that Angron had briefed them on, not thousands of screaming citizens swarming onto the plaza. They came in a tide, armed with anything and everything they had in their homes, but it was not the weapons they carried but their sheer numbers and the terrible song that spoke of killing and murder that made them deadly.
'World Eaters, to me!' yelled Ehrlen, hefting his bolter and aiming it into the mass of charging people.
The white-armoured warriors of the World Eaters formed a firing line around him, turning their bolters outwards.
'Fire!' shouted Ehrlen and the first ranks of the Choral City's inhabitants were cut down by the deadly volley, but the oncoming mass rose up like a spring tide as they clambered over the bodies of the dead.
As the gap between the two forces closed, the World Eaters put up their bolters and drew their chainswords.
Ehrlen saw the unreasoning hatred in the eyes of his enemies and knew that this battle was soon to turn into a massacre.
If there was one thing at which the World Eaters excelled, it was massacre.
'DAMN IT,' SPAT Vipus. 'We must have hit something on the way in.'
Loken forced his eyes open. A slice of light where the drop-pod had broken open provided the only illumination, but it was enough for him to check that he was still in once piece.
He was battered, but could feel no evidence of anything more than that.
'Locasta, sound off!' ordered Vipus. The warriors of Locasta shouted their names, and Loken was relieved to hear that none appeared to have been injured in the impact. He undid the buckle of his grav-harness and rolled to his feet, the drop-pod canted at an unnatural angle. He pulled his bolter from the rack and pushed his way through the narrow opening broken in the side of the drop-pod.
As he emerged into the bright sunshine, he saw that they had struck a projecting pier of stone on one of the towers, the rubble of its destruction scattered around the ruined drop-pod. He circled the wreckage, seeing that they were at least two hundred metres above the ground, wedged amongst the massive battlements of the Sirenhold.
To his left he saw spectacular tomb-spires encrusted with statues, while to his right was the Choral City itself, its magnificent structures bathed in the rosy glow of the sunrise. From this vantage point Loken could see the whole city, the extraordinary stone flower of the palace and the western defenses like scars across the landscape.
Loken could hear gunfire from the direction of the palace and realized that the Emperor's Children and World Eaters were already fighting the enemy. Gunfire echoed from below, Sons of Horus units fighting in the tangle of shrines and statuary that filled the canyons between the tomb-spires.
'We need a way down,' said Loken as Locasta pulled themselves from the wreckage of the drop-pod. Vipus jogged over with his gun at the ready.
'Bloody ground surveyors must have missed the projections,' he grumbled.
'That's what it looks like,' agreed Loken, as he saw another drop-pod ricochet from the side of a tomb-spire and careen downwards in a shower of broken statues.
'Our warriors are dying,' he said bitterly. 'Someone's going to pay for this.'
'We look spread out,' said Vipus, glancing down into the Sirenhold. Between the tomb-spires, smaller shrines and temples butted against one another in a complex jigsaw.
Plumes of black smoke and explosions were already rising from the fighting.
'We need a place to regroup,' said Loken. He flicked to Torgaddon's vox-channel. 'Tarik? Loken here, where are you?' A burst of static was his only reply. He looked across the Sirenhold and saw one tomb-spire close to the wall, its many levels supported by columns wrought into the shapes of monsters and its top sheared off by the impact of a drop-pod. 'Damn. If you can hear me, Tarik, make for the spire by the western wall, the one with the smashed top. Regroup there. I'm heading down to you.'
'Anything?' asked Vipus.
'No. The vox is a mess. Something's interrupting it.'
'The spires?'
'It would take more than that,' said Loken. 'Come on. Let's find a way off this damn wall.'
Vipus nodded and turned to his men. 'Locasta, start looking for a way down.'
Loken leaned over the battlements as Locasta fanned out to obey their leader's command. Beneath him he could see the diminutive figures of Astartes fighting black-armoured warriors in streaming firefight. He turned away, desperate to find a way down. 'Here!' shouted Brother Casto, Locasta's flamer bearer. 'A stairway.'
'Good work,' said Loken, making his way over to see what Casto had found. Sure enough, hidden behind a tall, eroded statue of an ancient warrior was a dark stairway cut into the sand-coloured stone.
The passageway looked rough and unfinished, the stone pitted and crumbling with age. 'Move,' said Vipus. 'Casto, lead the way.'
'Yes, captain,' replied Casto, plunging into the gloom of the passageway. Loken and Vipus followed him, the entrance barely wide enough for their armoured bodies. The stairs descended for roughly ten metres before opening into a wide, low-ceilinged gallery. 'The wall must be riddled,' said Vipus. 'Catacombs,' said Loken, pointing to niches cut into the walls that held the mouldering remains of skeletons, some still swaddled in tattered cloth.
Casto led them along the gallery, the bodies becoming more numerous the deeper they went, the skeletal remains piled two or three deep.
Vipus snapped around suddenly, bolter up and finger on the trigger. 'Vipus?'
'I thought I heard something.'
'We're clear behind,' said Loken. 'Keep moving and focus. This could-'
'Movement!' said Casto, sending a blast of orange-yellow fire from his flamer into the darkness ahead of him.
'Casto!' barked Vipus. 'Report! What do you see?'
Casto paused. 'I don't know. Whatever it was, it's gone now.'
The niches ahead guttered with flames, hungrily devouring the bare bones. Loken could see that there was no enemy up ahead, only Isstvanian dead.
'There's nothing there now,' said Vipus. 'Stay focused, Locasta, and no jumping at shadows! You are Sons of Horus!'
The squad picked up the pace, shaking thoughts of hidden enemies from their minds, as they moved rapidly past the burning grave-niches.
The gallery opened into a large chamber, Loken guessing that it must have filled the width of the wall. The only light was from the dancing flame at the end of Casto's flamer, the yellow light picking out the massive stone blocks of a tomb.
Loken saw a sarcophagus of black granite, surrounded by statues of kneeling people with their heads bowed and hands chained before them. Panels set into the walls were covered in carvings where human forms acted out ceremonial scenes of war.
'Casto, move up,' said Vipus. 'Find us a way down.'
Loken approached the sarcophagus, running his hand down its vast length. Its lid was carved to represent a human figure, but he knew that it could not be a literal portrait of the body inside; its face had no features save for a pair of triangular eyes fashioned from chips of coloured glass.
Loken could hear the song from the Sirenhold outside, even through the layers of stone, a single mournful tone that rose and fell, winding its way from the tomb-spires.
'Warsinger,' said Loken bitterly. 'They're fighting back. We need to get down there.'
THE SILVER-ARMOURED palace guards started flying.
Surrounded by burning arcs of white energy, they leapt over the advancing Emperor's Children, gleaming, leaf shaped blades slicing downwards from wrist-mounted weapons.
Lucius rolled to avoid a hail of blades, the silver guard swooping low to behead two of Squad Quemondil, the charged blades cutting through their armour with horrific ease.
He slid into the water, finding that it only reached his waist. Above him, the halberd-guns of the palace guard were spraying silver fire at the Emperor's Children, but the Astartes were moving and firing with their customary discipline Even the bizarre sight of the palace's defenders did not dissuade them from their patterns of movement and covering fire. A body fell into the water next to him, its head blasted away by bolter fire and blood pouring into the water in a scarlet bloom.
Lucius saw that the silver gua |
er, finding that it only reached his waist. Above him, the halberd-guns of the palace guard were spraying silver fire at the Emperor's Children, but the Astartes were moving and firing with their customary discipline Even the bizarre sight of the palace's defenders did not dissuade them from their patterns of movement and covering fire. A body fell into the water next to him, its head blasted away by bolter fire and blood pouring into the water in a scarlet bloom.
Lucius saw that the silver guards were too quick and turned too nimbly for conventional engagement. He would just have to engage them unconventionally.
One of the silver guards dived towards him and Lucius could see the intricate filigree on the man's armour, the tiny gold threads like veins on the breastplate and greaves and the scrollwork that covered his face.
The guard dived like a seabird, firing a bright blade from his wrist.
Lucius turned the missile aside with his sword and leapt to meet his opponent. The guard twisted in the air, trying to avoid Lucius, but he was too close. Lucius swung his sword and sliced the guard's arm from his body, his crackling sword searing through the armour. Blood sprayed from the smoldering wound and the guard fell, twisting back towards the water.
Lucius fell with the dead man, splashing back into the lake as the Emperor's Children finally reached their enemy. Volleys of bolter fire scoured the islands and his warriors advanced relentlessly on the survivors. The palace guards were backing away, forming a tighter and tighter circle. Glass-armoured guards lay dead in heaps and the artificial lake was muddy pink and choked with bodies.
Rylanor's assault cannon sent fire tearing through the silk-clad guards, whose preternatural speed couldn't save them as the cannon shells turned the interior of the dome into a killing ground. Another silver guard fell, bolter fire ripping through his armour.
Squad Nasicae joined Lucius and he grinned wolfishly at them, elated at the prospect of fighting more of the silver guards.
'They're running,' said Lucius. 'Keep them on the back foot. Keep pressing on.'
'Squad Kaitheron's reporting from the plaza,' said Brother Scetherin. 'The World Eaters are fighting around the temple on the north side.'
'Still?'
'Sounds like they're holding off half the city.'
'Ha! They can have them. It's what the World Eaters are good at,' laughed Lucius, relishing the certain knowledge of his superiority.
Nothing in the galaxy could match that feeling, but already it was fading and he knew he would have to procure yet more opponents to satisfy his hunger for battle.
'We press on to the throne room,' he said. 'Ancient Rylanor, secure our rear. The rest of you, we're going for Praal. Follow me. If you can't keep up, go and join the Death Guard!'
His warriors cheered as they followed Lucius into the heart of the palace.
Every one of them wanted to kill Praal and hold his head aloft on the palace battlements so the whole of the Choral City could see. Only Lucius was certain that Praal's head would be his.
THE ANDRONIUS WAS quiet and tense, its palatial rooms dark and its long, echoing corridors empty of all but menials. The ship's engines pulsed dimly in the stern, only the rumble of directional thrusters shuddering through the ship. Every station was manned, every blast door was sealed and Tarvitz knew a battle alert when he saw it.
What confused him was the fact that the Isstvanians had no fleet to fight.
The hull groaned and Tarvitz felt a deep rumbling through the metal deck, sensing the motion of the ship before the artificial gravity compensated. Ever since the first wave of the speartip had launched, the vessel had been moving, and Tarvitz knew that his suspicions of something amiss were well-founded.
According to the mission briefings he had read earlier, Fulgrim's flagship had been assigned the role of launching the second wave once the palace and the Sirenhold had been taken. There was no need to move.
The only reason to move a vessel after a launch was to move into low orbit in preparation for a bombardment. Though he told himself he was being paranoid, Tarvitz knew that he had to see for himself what was going on.
He made his way swiftly through the Andronius towards the gun decks, keeping clear of such grand chambers as the Tarselian Amphitheatre and the columned grandeur of the Monument Hall. He kept to the areas of the ship where his presence would go unchallenged, and where those who might recognise him were unlikely to see him.
He had told Rylanor that he wanted to renounce his position of honour in the speartip to replace Captain Odovocar as Eidolon's senior staff officer, relaying the commander's orders to the surface, but it would only be a matter of time before his subterfuge was discovered.
Tarvitz descended into the lower reaches of the ship, far from where the Emperor's Children dwelt in the most magnificent parts of the Andronius. The rest of the ship, inhabited by servitors and menials, was more functional and Tarvitz knew he would pass without challenge here.
The darkness closed around Tarvitz and the yawning chasms of the engine structures opened out many hundreds of metres below the gantry on which he stood. Above the engine spaces were the reeking gun decks, where mighty cannons, weapons that could level cities, were housed in massive, armoured revetments.
'Stand by for ordnance,' chimed an automated, metallic voice. Tarvitz felt the ship shift again, and this time he could hear the creak of the hull as the planet's upper atmosphere raised the temperature of the outer hull.
Tarvitz descended an iron staircase at the end of the dark gantry and the vast expanse of the gun deck sprawled before him, a titanic vault that ran the length of the vessel. Huge, hissing cranes fed the guns, lifting tank-sized shells from the magazine decks through blast proof doors. Gunners and loaders sweated with their riggers, each gun serviced by a hundred men who hauled on thick chains and levers in preparation for their firing. Servitors distributed water to the gun crews and Mechanicum adepts maintained vigil on the weapons to ensure they were properly calibrated.
Tarvitz felt his resolve harden and his anger grow at the sight of the guns being made ready. Who were they planning to fire on? With thousands of Astartes on the planet's surface, bombarding the Choral City was absurd, yet here the guns were, loaded and ready to unleash hell.
He doubted that the men crewing these weapons knew which planet they were in orbit over or even who they would be shooting at. Entire communities flourished below the decks of a starship and it was perfectly possible that these men had no idea who they were about to destroy.
He reached the end of the staircase and set foot on the deck, its high ceiling soaring above him like a mighty cathedral to destructive power. Tarvitz heard footsteps approaching and turned to see a robed adept in the livery of the Mechanicum.
'Captain,' inquired the adept, 'is there something amiss?'
'No,' said Tarvitz. 'I am just here to ensure that everything is proceeding normally.'
'I can assure you, lord, that preparations for the bombardment are proceeding exactly as planned. The warheads will be launched prior to the deployment of the second wave.'
'Warheads?' asked Tarvitz.
'Yes, captain,' said the adept. 'All bombardment cannons are loaded with air bursting warheads loaded with virus bombs as specified in our order of battle.'
'Virus bombs,' said Tarvitz, fighting to hold back his revulsion at what the adept was telling him.
'Is everything all right, captain?' asked the adept, noticing the change in his expression.
'I'm fine,' Tarvitz lied, feeling as if his legs would give way any second. 'You can return to your duties.'
The adept nodded and set off towards one of the guns.
Virus bombs...
Weapons so terrible and forbidden that only the Warmaster himself, and the Emperor before him, could ever sanction their use.
Each warhead would unleash the life eater virus, a rampant organism that destroyed life in all its forms and wiped out every shred of organic matter on the surface of a planet within hours. The magnitude of this new knowledge, and its implications, staggered Tarvitz and he felt his breath coming in short, painful gasps as he attempted to reconcile what he knew with what he had just learned.
His Legion was preparing to kill the planet below and he knew with sudden clarity that it could not be alone in this. To saturate a planet with enough virus warheads to destroy all life would take many ships and with a sick jolt of horror, he knew that such an order could only have come from the Warmaster.
For reasons Tarvitz could not even begin to guess at the Warmaster had chosen to betray fully a third of his warriors, exterminating them in one fell swoop.
'I have to warn them,' he hissed, turning and running for the embarkation deck.
NINE
The power of a god
Regrouping
Honour brothers
THE STRATEGIUM WAS dark, lit only by braziers that burned with a flickering green flame. Where once the banners of the Legion's battle companies had hung from its walls, they were now replaced with those of the warrior lodge. The company banners had been taken down shortly after the speartip had been deployed and the message was clear: the lodge now had primacy within the Sons of Horus. The platform from which the Warmaster had addressed the officers of his fleet now held a lectern upon which rested the Book of Lorgar.
The Warmaster sat on the strategium throne, watching reports coming in from Isstvan III on the battery of pict-screens before him.
The emerald light picked out the edges of his armour and reflected from the amber gemstone forming the eye upon his breastplate. Reams of combat statistics streamed past and pict-relays showed the unfolding battles in the Choral City. The World Eaters were in the centre of an epic struggle. Thousands of people w |
held a lectern upon which rested the Book of Lorgar.
The Warmaster sat on the strategium throne, watching reports coming in from Isstvan III on the battery of pict-screens before him.
The emerald light picked out the edges of his armour and reflected from the amber gemstone forming the eye upon his breastplate. Reams of combat statistics streamed past and pict-relays showed the unfolding battles in the Choral City. The World Eaters were in the centre of an epic struggle. Thousands of people were swarming into the plaza before the Precentor's Palace, and the streets flowed with rivers of blood as the Astartes slaughtered wave after wave of Isstvanians that charged into their guns and chainblades.
The palace itself was intact, only a few palls of smoke indicating the battle raging through it as the Emperor's Children fought their way through its guards.
Vardus Praal would be dead soon, though Horus cared nothing for the fate of Isstvan III's rogue governor. His rebellion had simply given Horus the chance to rid himself of those he knew would never follow him on his great march to Terra.
Horus looked up as Erebus approached.
'First chaplain,' said Horus sternly. 'Matters are delicate. Do not disturb me needlessly.'
'There is news from Prospero,' said Erebus, unperturbed. The shadow whisperers clung to him, darting around his feet and the crozius he wore at his waist.
'Magnus?' asked Horus, suddenly interested.
'He lives yet,' said Erebus, 'but not for the lack of effort on the part of the Wolves of Fenris.'
'Magnus lives,' snarled Horus. 'Then he may yet be a danger.'
'No,' assured Erebus. 'The spires of Prospero have fallen and the warp echoes with the powerful sorcery Magnus used to save his warriors and escape.'
'Always sorcery,' said Horus. 'Where did he escape to?'
'I do not know yet,' said Erebus, 'but wherever he goes, the Emperor's dogs will hunt him down.'
'And he will either join us or die alone in the wilderness,' said Horus, thoughtfully. 'To think that so much depends on the personalities of so few. Magnus was nearly my deadliest enemy, perhaps as dangerous as the Emperor himself. Now he has no choice but to follow us until the very end. If Fulgrim brings Ferrus Manus into the fold then we have as good as won.'
Horus waved dismissively at the view screens depicting the battle in the Choral City. 'The Isstvanians believe the gods have come to destroy them and in a way they are right. Life and death are mine to dispense. What is that if not the power of a god?'
'CAPTAIN LOKEN. SERGEANT Vipus. It is good to see you both,' said Sergeant Lachost, hunkered down in the shattered shell of a shrine to one of Isstvan III's ancestors. 'We've been trying to raise all the squads. They're all over the place. The speartip's shattered.'
'Then we'll re-forge it here,' replied Loken.
Sporadic fire rattled through the valley, so he took cover beside Lachost. The sergeant's command squad was arrayed around the shrine ruin, bolters trained and occasionally snapping off shots at the shapes that darted through the shadows. Vipus and the survivors of Locasta huddled in the ruins with them.
The enemy wore the armour of ancient Isstvan, tarnished bands of silver and black, and carried strange relic-weapons, rapid-firing crossbows that hurled bolts of molten silver.
Tales of heroism were emerging from the scores of individual battles among the tomb-spires as Sons of Horus units fought off the soldiers of the Sirenhold.
'We've got good cover, and a position we can hold,' said Vipus. 'We can gather the squads here and launch a thrust into the enemy.'
Loken nodded as Torgaddon ducked into cover beside them, the Sons of Horus he had brought with him joining Lachost's men at the walls.
He grinned at Loken and said, 'What kept you, Garvi?'
'We had to come down from the top of the wall,' said Loken. 'Where are your warriors?'
'They're everywhere,' said Torgaddon. 'They're making their way to this spire, but a lot of the squads are cut off. The Sirenhold was garrisoned by some... elites, I suppose. They had a hell of an armoury here, ancient things, looks like advanced tech.'
Loken nodded as Torgaddon continued.
'Well, this spire is clear at least. I've got Vaddon and Lachost setting up a command post on the lower level and we can just hold this position for now. There are three more Legions in the Choral City and the rest of the Sons of Horus in orbit. There's no need-'
'The enemy has the field,' replied Loken sharply. 'They can surround us. There are catacombs beneath our feet they could use to get around us. No, if we stay put they will find a way to get to us. This is their territory. We strike as soon as we can. This is a speartip and it is up to us to drive it home.'
'Where?' asked Torgaddon.
'The tomb-spires,' said Loken. 'We hit them one by one. Storm them, kill whatever we find and move on. We keep going and force them onto the back foot.'
'Most of our speartip is on its way, captain,' said Lachost.
'Good,' replied Loken, looking up at the spires around the shrine.
The shrine was in a valley formed by the spire they had come down and the next spire along, a brutal cylinder of stone with glowering faces carved into its surface. Dozens of arches around its base offered entrance and cover, their darkness occasionally lit by a brief flash of gunfire.
A tangle of shrines littered the ground between the towers, statues of the Choral City's notable dead jutting from piles of ornate architecture or the ruins of temples.
Loken pointed to the tomb-spire across the valley. 'As soon as we have enough warriors for a full thrust, that's what we hit. Lachost, start securing the shrines around us to give us a good jumping-off point, and get some men up on the first levels of this spire to provide covering fire. Heavy weapons if you've got them.'
Gunfire echoed from the east and Loken saw the forms of Astartes moving towards them: Sons of Horus in the livery of Eskhalen Squad. More warriors were converging on their position, each fighting their own running battles among the shrines as they sought to regroup.
'This is more than a burial ground,' said Loken. 'Whatever happened to Isstvan III, it started here. This force is religious and this is their church.'
'No wonder they're crazy,' replied Torgaddon scornfully. 'Madmen love their gods.'
THE CONTROLS OF the Thunderhawk were loose, the ship trying to flip away from Tarvitz and go tumbling through space. He had only the most rudimentary training on these newer additions to the Astartes armoury, and most of that had been in atmosphere, skimming low over battlefields to drop troops or add fire support.
Tarvitz could see Isstvan III through the armoured glass of the viewing bay, a crescent of sunlight creeping across its surface. Somewhere near the edge of the shining crescent was the city where his battle-brothers, and those of three other Legions, were fighting unaware that they had already been betrayed.
'Thunderhawk, identify yourself,' said a voice through the gunship's vox. He must have entered the engagement envelope of the Andronius and the defence turrets had acquired him as a target. If he was lucky, he would have a few moments before the turrets locked on, moments when he could put as much distance between his stolen Thunderhawk and the Andronius.
'Thunderhawk, identify yourself,' repeated the voice and he knew that he had to stall in order to give himself time to get clear of the defence turrets.
'Captain Saul Tarvitz, travelling to the Endurance on liaison duty.'
'Wait for authorization.'
He knew he wouldn't get authorization, but each second took him further from the Andronius and closer to the planet's surface.
He pushed the Thunderhawk as hard as he dared, listening to the hiss of static coming from the vox, hoping against hope that somehow they would believe him and allow him to go on his way.
'Stand down, Thunderhawk,' said the voice. 'Return to the Andronius immediately.'
'Negative, Andronius,' replied Tarvitz. 'Transmission is breaking up.'
It was a cheap ploy, but one that might give him a few seconds more.
'I repeat, stand-'
'Go to hell,' replied Tarvitz.
Tarvitz checked the navigational pict for signs of pursuit, pleased to see that there were none yet, and wrenched the Thunderhawk down towards Isstvan III.
'THE PRIDE OF the Emperor is in transit,' announced Saeverin, senior deck officer of the Andronius. 'Though the vessel's Navigator claims to be encountering difficulties. Lord Fulgrim will not be with us any time soon.'
'Does he send any word of his mission?' asked Eidolon, standing at his shoulder.
'Communications are still very poor,' said Saeverin hesitantly, 'but what we have does not sound encouraging.'
'Then we will have to compensate with the excellence of our conduct and the perfection of our Legion,' said Eidolon. 'The other Legions may be more savage or resilient or stealthy but none of them approaches the perfection of the Emperor's Children. No matter what lies ahead, we must never let go of that.'
'Of course, commander,' said Saeverin, as his console lit up with a series of warning lights. His hands danced over the console and he turned to face Eidolon. 'Lord commander,' he said. 'We may have a problem.'
'Do not speak to me of problems,' said Eidolon.
'Defense control has just informed me that they have picked up a Thunderhawk heading for the planet's surface.'
'One of ours?'
'It appears so,' confirmed Saeverin, bending over his console. 'Getting confirmation now.'
'Who's piloting it?' demanded Eidolon. 'No one is authorized to travel to the surface.'
'The last communication with the Thunderhawk indicates that it is Captain Saul Tarvitz.'
'Tarvitz?' said Eidolon. 'Damn him, but he is a thorn in my side.'
'It's certainly him,' said Captain Saeverin. 'It looks like he took one of the Thunderhawks from the planetside embarkation deck.'
'Where is he heading?' asked Eidolon, 'exactly.'
'The Chor |
verin, bending over his console. 'Getting confirmation now.'
'Who's piloting it?' demanded Eidolon. 'No one is authorized to travel to the surface.'
'The last communication with the Thunderhawk indicates that it is Captain Saul Tarvitz.'
'Tarvitz?' said Eidolon. 'Damn him, but he is a thorn in my side.'
'It's certainly him,' said Captain Saeverin. 'It looks like he took one of the Thunderhawks from the planetside embarkation deck.'
'Where is he heading?' asked Eidolon, 'exactly.'
'The Choral City,' replied Saeverin.
Eidolon smiled. 'He's trying to warn them. He thinks he can make a difference. I thought we could use him, but he's too damn stubborn and now he's got it into his head that he's a hero. Saeverin, get some fighters out there and shoot him down. We don't need any complications now.'
'Aye, sir,' nodded Saeverin. 'Fighters launching in two minutes.'
MERSADIE WRUNG OUT the cloth and draped it over Euphrati's forehead. Euphrati moaned and shook, her arms thrashing as if she was throwing a fit. She looked as pale and thin as a corpse.
'I'm here,' said Mersadie, even though she suspected the comatose imagist couldn't hear her. She didn't understand what Euphrati was going through, and it made her feel so useless.
For reasons she didn't quite understand, she had stayed with Kyril Sindermann and Euphrati as they moved around the ship. The Vengeful Spirit was the size of a city and it had plenty of places in which to hide.
Word of their coming went ahead of them and wherever they went, grime-streaked engine crewmen or boiler-suited maintenance workers were there to show them to safety, supply them with food and water and catch a glimpse of the saint. At present, they sheltered inside one of the engine housings, a massive hollow tube that was normally full of burning plasma and great thrusting pistons. Now the engine was decommissioned for maintenance and it made for a good bolt-hole, hidden and secret despite its vast dimensions.
Sindermann slept on a thin blanket beside Euphrati and the old man had never looked more exhausted. His thin limbs were spotted and bony, his cheeks sunken and hollow.
One of the engine crew hurried up to the nook where Keeler lay on a bundle of blankets and clothes. He was stripped to the waist and covered in grease, a huge and muscular man who was moved to kneel meekly a short distance from the bed of his saint.
'Miss Oliton,' he said reverentially. 'Is there anything you or the saint need?'
'Water,' said Mersadie. 'Clean water, and Kyril asked for more paper, too.'
The crewman's eyes lit up. 'He's writing something?' Mersadie wished she hadn't mentioned it. 'He's collecting his thoughts for a speech,' she said. 'He's still an iterator, after all. If you can find some medical supplies as well, that would be useful, she's dehydrated.'
'The Emperor will preserve her,' said the crewman, worry in his voice.
'I'm sure he will, but we have to give him all the help we can,' replied Mersadie, trying not to sound as condescending as she felt.
The effect the comatose Euphrati had on the crew was extraordinary, a miracle in itself. Her very presence seemed to focus the doubts and wishes of so many people into an iron-strong faith in a distant Emperor.
'We'll get what we can,' said the crewman. 'We have people in the commissary and medical suites.' He reached forward to touch Euphrati's blanket and murmured a quiet prayer to his Emperor. As the crewman left she whispered her own perfunctory prayer. After all, the Emperor was more real than any of the so-called gods the Crusade had come across.
'Deliver us, Emperor,' she said quietly, 'from all of this.'
She looked down sadly and caught her breath as Euphrati stirred and opened her eyes, like someone awakening from a deep sleep. Mersadie reached down slowly, afraid that if she moved too quickly she might shatter this brittle miracle, and took the imagists hand in hers. 'Euphrati,' she whispered softly. 'Can you hear me?' Euphrati Keeler's mouth fell open and she screamed in terror.
'ARE YOU SURE?' asked Captain Garro of the Death Guard, limping on his newly replaced augmetic leg.
The gyros had not yet meshed with his nervous system and, much to his fury, he had been denied a place in the Death Guard speartip. The bridge of the Eisenstein was open to the workings of the ship, as was typical with the Death Guard fleet, since Mortarion despised ornamentation of any kind.
The bridge was a skeletal framework suspended among the ship's guts with massive coolant pipes looming overhead like knots of metallic entrails. The bridge crew bent over a platform inset with cogitator banks, their faces illuminated in harsh greens and blues.
'Very sure, captain,' replied the communications officer, reading from the data-slate in his hand. 'An Emperor's Children Thunderhawk is passing through our engagement zone.'
Garro took the data-slate from the officer and sure enough, there was a Thunderhawk gunship passing close to the Eisenstein, a pack of fighters at its heels.
'Smells like trouble,' said Garro. 'Put us on an intercept course.'
'Yes, captain,' said the deck officer, turning smartly and heading for the helm.
Within moments the engines flared into life, vast pistons pumping through the oily shadows that surrounded the bridge. The Eisenstein tilted as it began a ponderous turn towards the approaching Thunderhawk.
THE SCREAM HURLED Kyril Sindermann from sleep with the force of a thunderbolt and he felt his heart thudding against his ribs in fright.
'What?' he managed before seeing Euphrati sitting bolt upright in bed and screaming fit to burst her lungs. He scrambled to his feet as Mersadie tried to put her arms around the screaming imagist. Keeler thrashed like a madwoman and Sindermann rushed over to help, putting his arms out as if to embrace them both.
The moment his fingers touched Euphrati he felt the heat radiating from her, wanting to recoil in pain, but feeling as though his hands were locked to her flesh. His eyes met Mersadie's and he knew from the terror he saw there that she felt the same thing.
He whimpered as his vision blurred and darkened, as though he were having a heart attack. Images tumbled through his brain, dark and monstrous, and he fought to hold onto his sanity as visions of pure evil assailed him.
Death, like a black seething mantle, hung over everything. Sindermann saw Mersadie's delicate, coal dark face overcome with it, her features sinking in corruption.
Tendrils of darkness wound through the air, destroying whatever they touched. He screamed as he saw the flesh sloughing from Mersadie's bones, looking down at his hands to see them rotting away before his eyes. His skin peeled back, the bones maggot-white.
Then it was gone, the black, rotting death lifted from him and Sindermann could see their hiding place once again, unchanged since he had laid down to catch a few fitful hours of sleep. He stumbled away from Euphrati and with one look saw that Mersadie had experienced the same thing - horrendous, concentrated decay.
Sindermann put a hand to his chest, feeling his old heart working overtime.
'Oh, no...' Mersadie was moaning. 'Please... what is...?'
'This is betrayal,' said Keeler, her voice suddenly strong as she turned towards Sindermann, 'and it is happening now. You need to tell them. Tell them all, Kyril!'
Keeler's eyes closed and she slumped against Mersadie, who held her as she sobbed.
TARVITZ WRESTLED WITH the Thunderhawk controls. Streaks of bright crimson sheared past the cockpit - the fighter craft were on his tail, spraying ruby-red lances of gunfire at him.
Isstvan III wheeled in front of him as the gunship spun in the view screen.
Impacts thudded into the back of the Thunderhawk and he felt the controls lurch in his hands. He answered by ripping his craft upwards, hearing the engines shriek in complaint beneath him as they flipped the gunship's mass out of the enemy lines of fire. Loud juddering noises from behind him spoke of something giving way in one of the engines. Red warning lights and crisis telltales lit up the cockpit.
The angry blips of the fighters loomed large in the tactical display.
The vox-unit sparked again and he reached to turn it off, not wanting to hear gloating taunts as he was destroyed and any hope of warning was lost. His hand paused as he heard a familiar voice say, 'Thunderhawk on a closing course with the Eisenstein, identify yourself.'
Tarvitz wanted to cry in relief as he recognised the voice of his honour brother.
'Nathaniel?' he cried. 'It's Saul. It's good to hear your voice, my brother!'
'Saul?' asked Garro. 'What in the name of the Emperor is going on? Are those fighters trying to shoot you down?'
'Yes!' shouted Tarvitz, tearing the Thunderhawk around again, Isstvan III spinning below him. The Death Guard fleet was a speckling of glittering streaks against the blackness, crisscrossed by red laser blasts.
Tarvitz gunned the stormbird's remaining engine as Garro said, 'Why? And be quick, Saul. They almost have you!'
'This is treachery!' shouted Tarvitz. 'All of this! We are betrayed. The fleet is going to bombard the planet's surface with virus bombs.'
'What?' spluttered Garro, disbelief plain in his voice. 'That's insane.'
'Trust me,' said Tarvitz. 'I know how it sounds, but as my honour brother I ask you to trust me like you have never trusted me before. On my life I swear I do not lie to you, Nathaniel.'
'I don't know, Saul,' said Garro.
'Nathaniel!' screamed Tarvitz in frustration. 'Ship to surface vox has been shut off, so unless I can get a warning down there, every Astartes on Isstvan III is going to die!'
CAPTAIN NATHANIEL GARRO could not tear his eyes from the hissing vox-unit, as if seeking to discern the truth of what Saul Tarvitz was saying just by staring hard enough. Beside him, the tactical plot displayed the weaving blips that represented Tarvitz's Thunderhawk and the pursuing fighters. His experienced eye to |
rro.
'Nathaniel!' screamed Tarvitz in frustration. 'Ship to surface vox has been shut off, so unless I can get a warning down there, every Astartes on Isstvan III is going to die!'
CAPTAIN NATHANIEL GARRO could not tear his eyes from the hissing vox-unit, as if seeking to discern the truth of what Saul Tarvitz was saying just by staring hard enough. Beside him, the tactical plot displayed the weaving blips that represented Tarvitz's Thunderhawk and the pursuing fighters. His experienced eye told him that he had seconds at best to make a decision and his every instinct screamed that what he was hearing could not possibly be true.
Yet Saul Tarvitz was his sworn honour brother, an oath sworn on the bloody fields of the Preaixor Campaign, when they had shed blood and stood shoulder to shoulder through the entirety of a bloody, ill-fated war that had seen many of their most beloved brothers killed.
Such a friendship and bond of honour forged in the hell of combat was a powerful thing and Garro knew Saul Tarvitz well enough to know that he never exaggerated and never, ever lied. To imagine that his honour brother was lying to him now was beyond imagining, but to hear that the fleet was set to bombard their battle-brothers was equally unthinkable.
His thoughts tumbled like a whirlwind in his head and he cursed his indecision. He looked down at the eagle Tarvitz had carved into his vambrace so long ago and knew what he had to do.
TARVITZ PULLED THE Thunderhawk into a shallow dive, preparing to chop back the throttle and deploy his air brakes, hoping that he had descended far enough to allow the atmosphere of the planet below to slow him down sufficiently for what he planned...
He glanced down at the tactical display, seeing the fighters moving to either side of him, preparing to bracket him as his speed bled off. Judging the moment was crucial.
Tarvitz hauled back the throttle and hit the air brakes.
The grav seat harness pulled tight on his chest as he was hurled forwards and the cockpit was suddenly lit by brilliant flashes and a terrific juddering seized the gunship. He heard impacts on the hull and felt the Thunderhawk tumble away from his control.
He yelled in anger as he realized that those who sought to betray the Astartes had won, that his defiance of their treachery had been in vain. Blooms of fire surged past the cockpit and Tarvitz waited for the inevitable explosion of his death.
But it never came.
Amazed, he took hold of the gunship's controls and wrestled with them as he fought to level out his flight. The tactical display was a mess of interference, electromagnetic hash and radioactive debris clogging it with an impenetrable fog of a massive detonation. He couldn't see the fighters, but with such interference they could still be out there, even now drawing a bead on him.
What had just happened?
'Saul,' said a voice, heavy with sadness and Tarvitz knew that his honour brother had not let him down. 'Ease down, the fighters are gone.'
'Gone? How?'
'The Eisenstein shot them down on my orders,' said Garro. 'Tell me, Saul, was I right to do so, for if you speak falsely, then I have condemned myself alongside you.'
Tarvitz wanted to laugh and wished his old friend was standing next to him so he could throw his arms around him and thank him for his trust, knowing that Nathaniel Garro had made the most monumental decision in his life on nothing but what had passed between them moments ago. The depth of trust and the honour Garro had done him was immeasurable.
'Yes,' he said. 'You were right to trust me, my friend.'
'Tell me why?' asked Garro.
Tarvitz tried to think of something reassuring to tell his old friend, but knew that nothing he could say would soften the blow of this treachery. Instead, he said, 'Do you remember what you once told me of Terra?'
'YES, MY FRIEND,' sighed Garro. 'I told you it was old, even back in the day.'
'You told me of what the Emperor built there,' said Tarvitz. 'A whole world, where before there had been nothing, just barbarians and death. You spoke of the scars of the Age of Strife, whole glaciers burned away and mountains levelled.'
'Yes,' agreed Garro. 'I remember. The Emperor took that blasted planet and he founded the Imperium there. That's what I fight for, to stand against the darkness and build an empire for the human race to inherit.'
'That's what is being betrayed, my friend,' said Tarvitz. 'I will not allow that to happen, Saul.'
'Nor I, my friend,' swore Tarvitz. 'What will you do now?'
Garro paused, the question of what to do, now that he had chosen a side, uppermost in his mind. 'I'll tell the Andronius that I shot you down. The flare of the explosion and the fact that you're in the upper atmosphere should cover you long enough to get to the surface.'
'And after that?'
'The other Legions must be warned of what is going on. Only the Warmaster would have the daring to conceive of such betrayal and he would not have begun an endeavor of this magnitude without swaying some of his brother primarchs to join him. Rogal Dorn or Magnus would never forsake the Emperor and if I can get the Eisenstein out of the Isstvan system, I can bring them here: all of them.'
'Can you do it?' asked Tarvitz. 'The Warmaster will soon realize what you attempt.'
'I have some time before they will suspect, but then the whole fleet will be after me. Why is it that men have to die every time any of us tries to do what is right?'
'Because that's the Imperial Truth,' said Tarvitz. 'Can you keep control of the Eisenstein once this gets out?'
'Yes,' said Garro. 'It will be messy, but enough of the crew are staunch Terrans, and they will side with me. Those who do not will die.'
The port engine juddered and Tarvitz knew that he didn't have much time before the gunship gave out beneath him.
'I have to make for the surface, Nathaniel,' said Tarvitz. 'I don't know how much longer this ship will stay in the air.'
'Then this is where we part,' said Garro, an awful note of finality in his voice.
'The next time we see one another, it'll be on Terra,' said Tarvitz.
'If we meet again, my brother.'
'We will, Nathaniel,' promised Tarvitz. 'By the Emperor, I swear it.'
'May the luck of Terra be with you,' said Garro and the vox went dead.
Moments ago, he had been on the brink of death, but now he had hope that he might succeed in preventing the Warmaster's treachery from unfolding.
That was what the Imperial Truth meant, he realized at last.
It meant hope: hope for the galaxy; hope for humanity.
Tarvitz gunned the Thunderhawk's engine, fixed its course towards the Precentor's Palace and arrowed it towards the heart of the Choral City.
TEN
The most precious truth
Praal
Death's tomb
THE SUB-DECK was packed with people come to hear the words of the saint's apostle. Apostle: that was what they called him now, thought Sindermann, and it gave him comfort to know that even in these turbulent times, he was still a person that others looked up to. Vanity, he knew, but still... one takes what one can when circumstances change beyond one's control.
Word had spread quickly through the Vengeful Spirit that he was to speak and he glanced nervously around the edges of the sub-deck for any sign that word had reached beyond the civilians and remembrancers. Armed guards protected the approaches to the sub-deck, but he knew that if the Astartes or Maggard and his soldiers came in force, then not all of them would escape alive.
They were taking a terrible risk, but Euphrati had made it very clear that he needed to speak to the masses, to spread the word of the Emperor and to tell of the imminent treachery that she had seen.
Thousands of people stared expectantly at him and he cleared his throat, glancing over his shoulder to where Mersadie and Euphrati watched him standing at the lectern raised on a makeshift platform of packing crates. A portable vox-link had been rigged up to carry his words to the very back of the sub-deck, though he knew his iterator trained voice could be heard without any mechanical help. The vox-link was there to carry his words to those who could not attend this gathering, faithful among the technical staff of the ship having spliced the portable unit into the ship's principal vox-caster network.
Sindermann's words would be heard throughout the Expedition fleet.
He smiled at the crowd and took a sip of water from the glass beside him.
A sea of expectant faces stared back at him, desperate to hear his words of wisdom. What would he tell them, he wondered? He looked down at the scribbled notes he had taken over the time he had been sequestered in the bowels of the ship. He looked back over his shoulder at Euphrati and her smile lifted his heart.
He turned back to his notes, the words seeming trite and contrived.
He screwed the paper into a ball and dropped it by his side, feeling Euphrati's approval like a tonic in his veins.
'My friends,' he began. 'We live in strange times and there are events in motion that will shock many of you as they have shocked me. You have come to hear the words of the saint, but she has asked me to speak to you, that I may tell you of what she has seen and what all men and women of faith must do.'
His iterator's voice carried the precise amount of gravitas mixed with a tone that spoke to them of his regret at the terrible words of doom he was about to impart.
'The Warmaster has betrayed the Emperor,' he said, pausing to allow the inevitable howls of denial and outrage to fill the chamber. Shouted voices rose and fell like waves on the sea and Sindermann let them wash over him, knowing the exact moment when he should speak.
'I know, I know,' he said. 'You think that such a thing is unthinkable and only a short time ago, I would have agreed, but it is true. I have seen it with my own eyes. The saint showed me her vision and it chilled my very soul to see it: war-filled fields of the dead, winds that carry a cruel dust of bone a |
able howls of denial and outrage to fill the chamber. Shouted voices rose and fell like waves on the sea and Sindermann let them wash over him, knowing the exact moment when he should speak.
'I know, I know,' he said. 'You think that such a thing is unthinkable and only a short time ago, I would have agreed, but it is true. I have seen it with my own eyes. The saint showed me her vision and it chilled my very soul to see it: war-filled fields of the dead, winds that carry a cruel dust of bone and the sky-turned eyes of men who saw wonders and only dreamed of their children and friendship. I tasted the air and it was heavy with blood, my friends, its stink reeking on the bodies of men we have learned to call the enemy. And for what? That they decided they did not want to be part of our warmongering Imperium? Perhaps they saw more than we? Perhaps it takes the fresh eyes of an outsider to see what we have become blind to.'
The crowd quietened, but he could see that most people still thought him mad. Many here were of the Faithful, but many others were not. While almost all of them could embrace the Emperor as divine, few of them could countenance the Warmaster betraying such a wondrous being.
'When we embarked on this so-called "Great Crusade" it was to bring enlightenment and reason to the galaxy, and for a time that was what we did. But look at us now, my friends, when was the last time we approached a world with anything but murder in our hearts? We bring so many forms of warfare with us, the tension of sieges and the battlefield of trenches soaked in mud and misery while the sky is ripped with gunfire. And the men who lead us are no better! What do we expect from cultures who are met by men named "Warmaster", "Widowmaker" and "the Twisted"? They see the Astartes, clad in their insect carapaces of plate armour, marching to the grim sounds of cocking bolters and roaring chainswords. What culture would not try to resist us?'
Sindermann could feel the mood of the crowd shifting and knew he had stoked their interest. Now he had to hook their emotions.
'Look to what we leave behind us! So many memorials to our slaughters! Look to the Lupercal's Court, where we house the bloody weapons of war in bright halls and wonder at their cruel beauty as they hang waiting for their time to come again. We look at these weapons as curios, but we forget the actuality of the lives these savage instruments took. The dead cannot speak to us, they cannot plead with us to seek peace while the remembrance of them fades and they are forgotten. Despite the ranks of graves, the triumphal arches and eternal flames, we forget them, for we are afraid to look at what they did lest we see it in ourselves.'
Sindermann felt a wondrous energy filling him as he spoke, the words flowing from him in an unstoppable torrent, each word seeming to spring from his lips of its own volition, as though each one came from somewhere else, somewhere more eloquent than his poor, mortal talent could ever reach.
'We have made war in the stars for two centuries, yet there are so many lessons we have never learned. The dead should be our teachers, for they are the true witnesses. Only they know the horror and the ever repeating failure that is war; the sickness we return to generation after generation because we fail to hear the testament of those who were sacrificed to martial pride, greed or twisted ideology.'
Thunderous applause spread from the people directly in front of Sindermann, spreading rapidly through the chamber and he wondered if such scenes were being repeated on any of the other ships of the fleet that could hear his words.
Tears sprang to his eyes as he spoke, his hands gripping the lectern tightly as his voice trembled with emotion. 'Let the battlefield dead take our hands in theirs and illuminate us with the most precious truth we can ever learn, that there must be peace instead of war!'
LUCIUS SKIDDED TO the floor of what appeared to be some kind of throne room. Inlaid with impossibly intricate mosaic designs, the floor was covered in scrollwork so tightly wound that it seemed to ripple with movement. Bolter fire stitched through the room, showering him with broken pieces of mosaic as he rolled into the cover of an enormous harpsichord.
Music from the dawn of creation boomed around him, filling the central spire of the Precentor's Palace. Crystal chandeliers hung from the petals at the centre of the great granite flower, shimmering and vibrating in time with the cacophony of battle far below. Instruments filled the room, each one played by a servitor refitted to play the holy music of the Warsingers. Huge organs with pipes that reached up through the shafts of milky morning light stood next to banks of gilded bells and rank upon rank of bronze cages held shaven-headed choristers who sang with blind adulation.
Harp strings snapped and twanged in time with the gunfire and discordant notes boomed as bolter shots ripped through the side of the organ. Storms of weapons' fire flew, filling the air with hot metal and death, the battle and the music competing to make the loudest din.
Lucius felt his limbs become energized just listening to the crashing volume of the noise, each blaring note and booming shot filling his senses with the desire to do violence.
He glanced round the side of the harpsichord, exhausted and elated to have reached so far, so quickly. They had fought their way through the palace, killing thousands of the black- and silver-armoured guards, before finally reaching the throne room.
From his position of cover, Lucius saw that he was in the second ring of instruments, beyond which lay the Precentor's Dais. A mighty throne with its back to him sat upon the dais, a confection of gold and emerald set in a ring of lecterns that each held a massive volume of musical notations.
Gunfire blew one book apart and a blizzard of sheet music fluttered around the throne.
The palace guard massed on the opposite side of the throne room, surrounding a tall figure in gold armour with a collection of tubes and what looked like loudspeakers fanning out from his back. A storm of silver fire flew and Lucius saw yet more guards charging in from the other entrances, a ferocious struggle erupting as these new arrivals charged the Emperor's Children.
'They have courage, I'll give them that,' he muttered to himself.
Chainblades and bolt pistols rang from armour and storms of silver fire ripped between the patches of cover offered by the gilded instruments. Each volley tore up the hardwood frames and sawed through servitors as they sat at the ornate keyboards or plucked at strings with metal fingers.
And still the music played.
Lucius glanced behind him. One of Nasicae fell as he ran to join Lucius, silver filaments punched through his skull. The body clattered to the floor beside Lucius. Only three of Nasicae remained, and they were cut off from their leader.
'Ancient Rylanor, engage!' yelled Lucius into the vox. 'Get me cover! Tactical squads, converge on the throne and draw the palace guard in! Purity and death!'
'Purity and Death!' echoed the Emperor's Children, and with exemplary co-ordination they surged forward. A silver-armoured guard was shredded by bolter fire and flopped, broken, to the ground. Glass-armoured bodies lay shattered and bloody over bullet-scarred instruments. Servitors moved jerkily, still trying to play even though their hands were smoking ruins of bone and wire.
The Emperor's Children moved squad by squad, volley by volley, advancing through the fire as only the most perfect of Legions could.
Lucius broke cover and ran into the whirlwind of fire. Silver shards shattered against him.
Behind him, Rylanor's dreadnought body smashed through a titanic bank of drums and bells, the noise of its destruction appalling as Rylanor opened fire on the enemy. Acrobatic guards, clad in armour wound with long streamers of silk, darted and leapt away from chainblades and bolts like dancers, slashing limbs with monofilament wire-blades.
Glass-armoured guards charged forward in solid ranks, stabbing with their halberds, yet none of the foes was a match for the disciplined countercharges of the Emperor's Children. The slick perfection of their pattern-perfect warfare kept its edge even amid the storm of fire and death that filled the throne room.
Lucius ducked and wove through the fire towards the gold armoured figure, shrapnel flashing against the energised edge of his sword blade.
The man's armour was ancient, yet gloriously ornate, the equal in finery of a lord commander of the Emperor's Children. He carried a long spear, its shaft terminated at both ends by a howling ripple of lethal harmonies. Lucius ducked under a swipe of the weapon, stepping nimbly to the side and bringing his sword up towards his opponent's midriff.
Faster than he would have believed possible, the spear reversed and a tremendous blast of noise battered his sword away before it struck. Lucius danced back as a killing wave of sound blared from the tubes and speakers mounted on the golden warrior's back, a whole section of the mosaic floor ploughed in a torn gouge by the sound.
One of the palace guards fell at Lucius's feet, his chest blown open by Rylanor's fire, and another toppled as one of Nasicae sliced off his leg.
The Emperor's Children surged forwards to help him, but he waved them back - this was to be his kill. He leapt onto the throne pedestal, the golden warrior silhouetted in the light streaming from the distant ceiling.
The screaming spear came down and Lucius ducked to avoid it, pushing himself forwards. He stabbed with his sword, but a pitch perfect note sent his sword plunging towards the floor of the dais instead of its intended target. Lucius hauled his sword clear as the spear stabbed for him again, the musical edge shearing past him and blistering the purple and gilt of his armour. The battle raged ferociously around him, but it |
golden warrior silhouetted in the light streaming from the distant ceiling.
The screaming spear came down and Lucius ducked to avoid it, pushing himself forwards. He stabbed with his sword, but a pitch perfect note sent his sword plunging towards the floor of the dais instead of its intended target. Lucius hauled his sword clear as the spear stabbed for him again, the musical edge shearing past him and blistering the purple and gilt of his armour. The battle raged ferociously around him, but it was an irrelevance, for Lucius knew that he must surely be fighting the leader of this rebellion.
Only Vardus Praal would surround himself with such fearsome bodyguards.
Lucius pivoted away from another strike, spinning around behind Praal and shearing his sword through the speaker tubes and loudspeakers upon his back. He felt a glorious surge of satisfaction as the glowing edge cut through the metal with ease. A terrific, booming noise blared from the severed pipes and Lucius was hurled from the dais by the force of the blast.
His armour cracked with the force, and the music leapt in clarity as he felt its power surge around his body in a glorious wash of pure, unadulterated sensation. The music sang in his blood, promising yet more glories, and the unfettered excess of music, light and hedonistic indulgence.
Lucius felt the music in his soul and knew that he wanted it, wanted it more than he had wanted anything in his life.
He looked up as the golden warrior leapt lightly from the throne, seeing the music as swirling lines of power and promise that flowed like water in the air.
'Now you die,' said Lucius as the song of death took hold of him.
IN LATER MOMENTS they would name it Death's Tomb, and Loken had never felt such disgust at the sights he saw within it. Even Davin's moon, where the swamps had vomited up the living dead to attack the Sons of Horus, had not been this bad.
The sound of battle was a hellish music of screaming, rising in terrible crescendos, and the sight was horrendous. Death's Tomb was brimming with corpses, festering in charnel heaps and bubbling with corruption.
The tomb-spire Loken and the Sons of Horus fought within was larger inside than out, the floor sunken into a pit where the dead had been thrown. The tomb was that of Death itself. A mausoleum of bloodstained black iron carved into swirls and scrollwork dominated the pit, topped with a sculpture of Father Isstvan himself, a massive bearded sky-god who took away the souls of the faithful and cast the rest into the sky to languish with his Lost Children.
A Warsinger perched on Father Isstvan's black shoulder, screaming a song of death that jarred at Loken's nerves and sent jangling pain along his limbs. Hundreds of Isstvanian soldiers surrounded the pit, firing from the hip as they ran towards the Astartes, driven forward by the shrieking death song.
'At them!' yelled Loken, and before he could draw breath again the enemy was upon them. The Astartes of the spearhead streamed through the many archways leading into the tomb-spire, guns blazing as soon as they saw the enemy swarming towards them. Loken fired a fusillade of shots before the two sides clashed.
More than two thousand Sons of Horus charged into battle and Death's Tomb became a vast amphitheatre for a great and terrible slaughter, like the arenas of the ancient Romani.
'Stay close! Back to back, and advance!' cried Loken, but he could only hope that his fellow warriors could hear him over the vox. The screaming was deafening, every Isstvanian soldier's mouth jammed open and howling in the shrieking cadences of the Warsinger's music.
Loken cut a gory crescent through the bodies pressing in on him, Vipus matching him stroke for stroke with his long chainsword. Strategy and weapons meant nothing now. The battle was simply a brutal close quarters fight to the death.
Such a contest could have only one outcome. Loathing filled Loken. Not at the blood and death around him, he had seen much worse before, but at the sheer waste of this war. The people he was killing... their lives could have meant something. They could have accepted the Imperial Truth and helped forge a galaxy where the human race was united and the wisdom of the Emperor ushered them towards a future filled with wonders. Instead they had been betrayed and turned into fanatical killers by a corrupt leader, destined to die for a cause that was a lie.
Good lives wasted. Nothing could be further from the purpose of the Imperium.
'Torgaddon! Bring the line forwards. Force them back and give the guns some room.'
'Easier said than done, Garvi!' replied Torgaddon, his voice punctuated with the sharp crack of breaking bones.
Loken glanced around, saw one of Lachost's squad dragged down by the mass of enemy warriors and tried to bring his bolter to bear. Bloodied, ruined hands forced his aim down and the battle-brother was lost. He dropped his shoulder and barged forwards, bodies breaking beneath him, but others were on top of him, blades and bullets beating at his armour.
With a roar of anger, Loken ripped his chainsword through an armoured warrior before him, forcing the enemy back for the split second he needed to open up with his bolter. A full-throated volley sent a magazine's worth of shells into the mass, blasting them apart in a red ruin of shattered faces and broken armour.
He rapidly swapped in a new bolter magazine and fired among the warriors trying to swamp his fellow Sons of Horus. The Astartes used the openings to forge onwards or open up spaces to bring their own weapons up. Others lent their gunfire to the battle-brothers fighting behind them.
The tone of the Warsinger's screaming changed and Loken felt as though rusty nails were being torn up his spine. He staggered and the enemy were upon him.
'Torgaddon!' he shouted over the din. 'Get the Warsinger!'
'MY APOLOGIES, WARMASTER,' began Maloghurst, nervous at interrupting the Warmaster's concentration on the battle below. 'There has been a development.'
'In the city?' asked Horus without looking up. 'On the ship,' replied Maloghurst. Horus looked up in irritation. 'Explain yourself.'
'The Prime Iterator, Kyril Sindermann...'
'Old Kyril?' said Horus. 'What of him?'
'It appears we have misjudged the man's character, my lord.'
'In what way, Mal?' asked Horus. 'He's just an old man.'
'That he is, but he may be a greater threat than anything we have yet faced, my lord,' said Maloghurst. 'He is a leader now, an apostle they call him. He-'
'A leader?' interrupted Horus, 'of whom?'
'Of the people of the fleet, civilians, ships' crew, and the Lectitio Divinitatus. He has just finished a speech to the fleet calling on them to resist the Legion, saying that we are warmongers and seek to betray the Emperor. We are trying to trace where the signal came from, but it is likely he will be long gone before we find him.'
'I see,' said Horus. 'This problem should have been dealt with before Isstvan.'
'And we have failed you in this,' said Maloghurst. 'The iterator mixed calls for peace with a potent brew of religion and faith.'
'This should not surprise us,' said Horus. 'Sindermann was selected for duty with my fleet precisely because he could convince even the most fractious rabble to do anything. Mix that skill with religious fervor and he is indeed a dangerous man.'
'They believe the Emperor is divine,' said Maloghurst, 'and that we commit blasphemy.'
'It must be an intoxicating faith,' mused Horus, 'and faith can be a very powerful weapon. It appears, Maloghurst, that we have underestimated the potential that even a civilian possesses so long as he has genuine faith in something.'
'What would you have me do, my lord?'
'We did not deal with this threat properly,' said Horus. 'It should have ceased to exist when Varvarus and those troublesome remembrancers were illuminated. Now it takes my attention when our plan is at its most sensitive stage. The bombardment is imminent.'
Maloghurst bowed his head. 'Warmaster, Sindermann and his kind will be destroyed.'
'The next I hear of this will be that they are all dead,' ordered Horus.
'It will be done,' promised Maloghurst.
'FOOL!' SPAT PRAAL, his voice a disgusted rasp. 'Have you not seen this world? The wonders you would destroy? This is a city of the gods!'
Lucius rolled to his feet, still stunned from the sonic shockwave that had hurled him from the throne dais, but knowing that the song of death was being sung for him and him alone. He lunged, but Praal batted aside his attack, bringing his spear up in a neat guard.
'This is the city of my enemies,' laughed Lucius. 'That is all that matters to me.'
'You are deaf to the music of the galaxy. I have heard far more than you,' said Praal. 'Perhaps you are to be pitied, for I have listened to the sound of the gods. I have heard their song and they damn this galaxy in their wisdom!'
Lucius laughed in Praal's face. 'You think I care? All I want to do is kill you.'
'The gods have sung what your Imperial Truth will bring to the galaxy,' shrieked Praal, his musical voice heavy with disdain. 'It is a future of fear and hatred. I was deaf to the music before they opened me to their song of oblivion. It is my duty to end your Crusade!'
'You can try,' said Lucius, 'but even if you kill us all, more will come: a hundred thousand more, a million, until this planet is dust. Your little rebellion is over; you just don't know it yet.'
'No, Astartes,' replied Praal. 'I have fulfilled my duty and brought you here, to this cauldron of fates. My work is done! All that remains is to blood myself in the name of Father Isstvan.'
Lucius danced away as Praal attacked once more with the razor-sharp feints of a master warrior, but the swordsman had faced better opponents than this and prevailed. The song of death rippled behind his eyes and he could see every move Praal made before he made it, the song speaking to him on a level he didn't understand, but instinctive |
'I have fulfilled my duty and brought you here, to this cauldron of fates. My work is done! All that remains is to blood myself in the name of Father Isstvan.'
Lucius danced away as Praal attacked once more with the razor-sharp feints of a master warrior, but the swordsman had faced better opponents than this and prevailed. The song of death rippled behind his eyes and he could see every move Praal made before he made it, the song speaking to him on a level he didn't understand, but instinctively knew was power beyond anything he had touched before.
He launched a flurry of blows at Praal, driving him back with each attack and no matter how skilfully Praal parried his strikes, each one came that little bit closer to wounding him.
The flicker of fear he saw in Praal's eyes filled him with brutal triumph. The shrieking, musical spear blared one last atonal scream before it finally shattered under the energized edge of Lucius's sword.
The swordsman pivoted smoothly on his heel and drove his blade, two-handed, into Praal's golden chest, the sword burning through his armour, ribs and internal organs.
Praal dropped to his knees, still alive, his mouth working dumbly as blood sprayed from the massive wound. Lucius twisted the blade, relishing the cracks as Praal's ribs snapped.
He put a foot on Praal's body and pulled the sword clear, standing triumphant over the body of his fallen enemy.
Around him, the Emperor's Children slew the remaining palace guards, but with Praal dead, the song in his blood diminished and his interest in the fight faded. Lucius turned to the throne itself, already aching for the music to surge through his body once again.
The throne's back was to him and he couldn't see who was seated there. A control panel worked furiously before it, like a monstrously complicated clockwork keyboard.
Lucius stepped around the throne and looked into the glassy eyes of a servitor.
Its head was mounted on a skinny body of metal armatures, the complex innards stripped out and replaced with brass clockwork. Chattering metal lines reached from the chest cavity to read the music printed in the books mounted around the throne and the servitor's hands, elaborate, twenty-fingered constructions of metal and wire, flickered over the control panel.
Without Praal, the music was out of tune and time, its syncopated rhythms falling apart. Lucius knew that this was a poor substitute for what had fuelled his battle with Praal.
Suddenly angry beyond words, Lucius brought his blade down in a glittering arc, shattering the control panel in a shower of orange sparks. The hideous music transformed into a howling death shriek, shaking the stone petals of the palace with its terrible deafening wail before fading like a forgotten dream.
The music of creation ended and all across Isstvan the voices of the gods were silenced.
A VOLLEY OF gunfire caught Loken's attention as he desperately fought the dozens of guards who stabbed at him with their gleaming halberds. Behind him, Torgaddon brought the speartip up into a firing line, and bolter fire battered against the black iron of Death's mausoleum. The Warsinger was broken like a dying bird against the statue of Father Isstvan.
The Warsinger fell, her final scream tailing off as her shattered form cracked against the ornate carvings of Death's mausoleum.
'She's down!' said Torgaddon's voice over the vox, sounding surprised at the ease with which she had been killed.
'Who have we lost?' asked Loken, as. the enemy soldiers fell back at the Warsinger's death, suspecting that there was more to this withdrawal than simply her death. Something fundamental had changed on Isstvan, but he didn't yet know what.
'Most of Squad Chaggrat,' replied Torgaddon, 'and plenty of others. We won't know until we get out of here, but there's something else...'
'What?' asked Loken.
'Lachost says we've lost contact with orbit,' said Torgaddon. 'There's no signal. It's as if the Vengeful Spirit isn't even up there.'
'That's impossible,' said Loken, looking around for the familiar sight of Sergeant Lachost.
He saw him at the edge of the charnel pit and marched over to him. Torgaddon and Vipus followed him and Torgaddon said, 'Impossible or not, it's what he tells me.'
'What about the rest of the strike force?' asked Loken, crouching beside Lachost. 'What about the palace?'
'We're having more luck with them,' replied Lachost. 'I managed to get through to Captain Ehrlen of the World Eaters. It sounds like they're outside the palace. It's an absolute massacre over there, thousands of civilians dead.'
'In the name of Terra!' said Loken, imagining the World Eaters' predilection for massacre and the rivers of blood that would be flowing through the streets of the Choral City. 'Have they managed to contact anyone in orbit?'
'They've got their hands full, captain,' replied Lachost. 'Even if they've managed to raise the Conqueror, they're in no position to relay anything from us. I could barely get anything out of Ehrlen other than that he was killing them with his bare hands.'
'And the palace?'
'Nothing, I can't get through to Captain Lucius of the Emperor's Children. The palace has been playing hell with communications ever since they went in. There was some kind of music, but nothing else.'
'Then try the Death Guard. They've got the Dies Irae with them, we can use it to relay for us,'
'I'll try, sir, but it's not looking hopeful.'
'This was supposed to be over by now,' spat Loken. 'The Choral City isn't just going to collapse with their leaders dead. Maybe the World Eaters have the right idea. We're going to have to kill them all. We need the second wave down here now and if we can't even speak to the Warmaster this is going to be a very long campaign.'
'I'll keep trying,' said Lachost. 'We need to link up with the rest of the strike force,' said Loken. 'We're cut off here. We need to make for the palace and find the World Eaters or the Emperor's Children. We're not doing any good sitting here. All we're doing is giving the Isstvanians a chance to surround us.'
'There're a lot of soldiers between us and the rest of the strike force,' Torgaddon pointed out.
'Then we advance in force. We won't take this city by waiting to be attacked.'
'Agreed. I saw the main gates along the western walls. We can get into the city proper there, but it'll be a tough slog,'
'Good,' said Loken.
'IT'S A TRAP,' said Mersadie. 'It has to be.'
'You're probably right,' agreed Sindermann.
'Of course I'm right,' said Mersadie. 'Maloghurst tried to have Euphrati killed. His pet monster, Maggard, almost killed you too, remember?'
'I remember very well,' said Sindermann, 'but think of the opportunity. There will be thousands there and they couldn't possibly try anything with that many people around. They probably won't even notice we're there.'
Mersadie looked down her nose at Sindermann, unable to believe that the old iterator was being so dense. Had he not spoken to hundreds of people only hours before of the Warmaster's perfidy? And now he wanted to gather in a room with him?
They had been woken from their slumbers by one of the engineering crew who pressed a rolled leaflet into Sindermann's shaking hand. Sharing a worried glance with Mersadie, Sindermann had read it. It was a decree from the Warmaster authorizing all remembrancers to gather in the Vengeful Spirit's main audience chamber to bear witness to the final triumph on Isstvan III. It spoke of the gulf that had, much to the Warmaster's great sorrow, opened between the Astartes and the remembrancers. With this one, grand gesture, the Warmaster hoped to allay any fears that such a gulf had been engineered deliberately.
'He must think we are stupid,' said Mersadie. 'Does he really think we would fall for this?'
'Maloghurst is a very cunning man,' said Sindermann, rolling up the leaflet and placing it on the bed. 'You'd hardly take him for a warrior any more. He's trying to flush the three of us out, hoping that no remembrancer could resist such an offer. If I were a less moral man I might admire him.'
'All the more reason not to fall into his trap!' exclaimed Mersadie.
'Ah, but what if it's genuine, my dear?' asked Sindermann. 'Imagine what we'd see on the surface of Isstvan III!'
'Kyril, this is a big ship and we can hide out for a long time. When Loken comes back he can protect us.'
'Like he protected Ignace?'
'That's not fair, Kyril,' said Mersadie. 'Loken can help us get off the ship once we leave the Isstvan system.'
'No,' said a voice behind Mersadie and they both turned to see Euphrati Keeler. She was awake again, and her voice was stronger than Mersadie had heard it for a long time. She looked healthier than she had been since the terror in the archive. To see her standing, walking and talking after so long was still a novelty for Mersadie and she smiled to see her friend once again.
'We go,' she said.
'Euphrati?' said Mersadie. 'Do you really...'
'Yes, Mersadie,' she said. 'I mean it. And yes, I am sure.'
'It's a trap.'
'I don't need a vision from the Emperor to see that,' laughed Euphrati, and Mersadie thought there was something a little sinister and forced to it.
'But they'll kill us.'
Euphrati smiled. 'Yes they will. If we stay here, they'll hunt us down eventually. We have faithful among the crew, but we have enemies, too. I will not have the Church of the Emperor die like that. This will not end in shadows and murder.'
'Now, Miss Keeler,' said Sindermann with a forced lightness of tone. 'You're starting to sound like me.'
'Maybe they will find us eventually, Euphrati,' said Mersadie, 'but there's no reason to make it easy for them. Why let the Warmaster have his way when we can live a little longer?'
'Because you have to see,' said Euphrati. 'You have to see it. This fate, this treachery, it's too great for any of us to understand without witnessing it. Have faith that I am right about this, my friends.'
'It's not a qu |
eeler,' said Sindermann with a forced lightness of tone. 'You're starting to sound like me.'
'Maybe they will find us eventually, Euphrati,' said Mersadie, 'but there's no reason to make it easy for them. Why let the Warmaster have his way when we can live a little longer?'
'Because you have to see,' said Euphrati. 'You have to see it. This fate, this treachery, it's too great for any of us to understand without witnessing it. Have faith that I am right about this, my friends.'
'It's not a question of faith now, is it?' said Sindermann. 'It's a-'
'It is time for us to stop thinking like remembrancers,' said Euphrati, and Mersadie saw a light in her eyes that seemed to grow brighter with every word she spoke. 'The Imperial Truth is dying. We have watched it wither ever since Sixty-Three Nineteen. You either die with it or you follow the Emperor. This galaxy is too simple for us to hide in its complexity any more and the Emperor cannot work His will through those who do not know if they even believe at all.'
'I will follow you,' said Sindermann, and Mersadie found herself nodding in agreement.
ELEVEN
Warning
Death of a World
The Last Cthonian
SAUL TARVITZ'S FIRST sight of the Choral City was the magnificent stone orchid of the Precentor's Palace. He stepped from the battered Thunderhawk onto the roof of one of the palace wings, the spectacular dome soaring above him. Smoke coiled in the air from the battles within the palace and the terrible sound of screaming came from the square to the north, along with the powerful stench of freshly-spilled blood.
Tarvitz took it in at a glance, the thought hitting him hard that at any moment it would all be gone. He saw Astartes moving along the roof towards him, Emperor's Children, and his heart leapt to see Nasicae Squad with Lucius at its head, his sword smoking from the battle.
'Tarvitz!' called Lucius, and Tarvitz thought he detected even more of a swagger to the swordsman's stride. 'I thought you'd never make it! Jealous of the kills?'
'Lucius, what's the situation?' asked Tarvitz.
'The palace is ours and Praal is dead, killed by my own hand! No doubt you can smell the World Eaters; they're just not at home unless everything stinks of blood. The rest of the city's cut off. We can't raise anyone.'
Lucius indicated the city's far west, where the towering form of the Dies Irae blazed fire upon the hapless Isstvanians out of sight below. 'Though it looks like the Death Guard will soon run out of things to kill.'
'We have to contact the rest of the strike force, now,' said Tarvitz, 'the Sons of Horus and the Death Guard. Get a squad on it. Get someone up to higher ground.'
'Why?' asked Lucius. 'Saul, what's happening?'
'We're going to be hit. Something big. A virus strike.'
'The Isstvanians?'
'No,' said Tarvitz sadly. 'We are betrayed by our own.' Lucius hesitated. 'The Warmaster? Saul, what are you-'
'We've been sent down here to die, Lucius. Fulgrim chose those who were not part of their grand plan.'
'Saul, that's insane!' cried Lucius. 'Why would our primarch do such a thing?'
'I do not know, but he would not have done this without the Warmaster's command,' said Tarvitz. 'This is but the first stage in some larger plan. I do not know its purpose, but we have to try and stop it.'
Lucius shook his head, his features twisted in petulant bitterness. 'No. The primarch wouldn't send me to die, not after all the battles I fought for him. Look at what I've become. I was one of Fulgrim's chosen! I've never faltered, never questioned! I would have followed Fulgrim into hell!'
'But I wouldn't, Lucius,' said Tarvitz, 'and you are my friend. I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this. We have to get the warning out and then find shelter. I'll take word to the World Eaters, you raise the Sons of Horus and Death Guard. Don't go into the details, just tell them that there is a virus strike inbound and to find whatever shelter they can.'
Tarvitz looked at the reassuring solidity of the Precentor's Palace and said, 'There must be catacombs or deep places beneath the palace. If we can reach them we may survive this. This city is going to die, Lucius, but I'll be damned if I am going to die with it.'
'I'll get a vox-officer up here,' said Lucius, a steel anger in his voice.
'Good. We don't have much time, Lucius, the bombs will be launched any moment.'
'This is rebellion,' said Lucius.
'Yes,' said Tarvitz, 'it is.'
Beneath his ritualistic scars, Lucius was still the perfect soldier he had always been, a talisman whose confidence could infect the men around him, and Tarvitz knew he could rely on him. The swordsman nodded and said, 'Go, and find Captain Ehrlen. I'll raise the other Legions and get our warriors into cover. I will speak with you again.'
'Until then,' said Tarvitz.
Lucius turned to Nasicae, barked an order, and ran back towards the palace dome. Tarvitz followed, looking down on the northern plaza and glimpsing the seething battle there, hearing the screams and the sound of chainblades.
He looked up at the late morning sky. Clouds were gathering.
Any moment, falling virus bombs would bore through those clouds.
The bombs would fall all over Isstvan III and billions of people would die.
AMONG THE TRENCHES and bunkers that sprawled to the west of the Choral City, men and Astartes died in storms of mud and fire. The Dies Irae shuddered with the weight of fire it laid down. Moderati Cassar felt it all, as though the immense, multi-barrelled Vulcan bolter were in his own hand. The Titan had suffered many wounds, its legs scarred by missile detonations and furrows scored in its mighty torso by bunker-mounted cannons.
Cassar felt them all, but a multitude of wounds could not slow down the Dies Irae or turn it from its course. Destruction was its purpose and death was the punishment it brought down on the heads of the Emperor's enemies.
Cassar's heart swelled. He had never felt so close to his Emperor, at one with the God-Machine, a fragment of the Emperor's own strength instilled in the Dies Irae.
'Aruken, pull to starboard!' ordered Princeps Turnet from the command chair. 'Avoid those bunkers or they'll foul the port leg.'
The Dies Irae swung to the side, its immense foot taking the roofs from a tangle of bunkers and shattering artillery emplacements as it crashed forwards. A scrum of Isstvanian soldiers scrambled from the ruins, setting up heavy weapons to pour fire into the Titan as it towered over them.
The Isstvanians were well-drilled and well-armed, and though the majority of their weapons weren't the equal of a lasgun, trenches were a great leveler and a man with a rifle was a man with a rifle when the gunfire started.
The Death Guard slaughtered thousands of them as they bludgeoned their way through the trenches, but the Isstvanians were more numerous and they hadn't run. Instead they had fallen back trench by trench, rolling away from the relentless advance of the Death Guard.
The Isstvanians, with their drab green-grey helmets and mud-spattered flak-suits, were hard to pick out against the mud and rabble with the naked eye, but the sensors on the Dies Irae projected a sharp-edged image onto Cassar's retina that picked them out in wondrously clear detail.
Cassar fired a blast of massive-caliber shells, watching as columns of mud and bodies sprayed into the air like splashes in water. The Isstvanians disappeared, destroyed by the hand of the Emperor. 'Enemy forces massing to the port forward quadrant,' said Moderati Aruken.
To Cassar his voice felt distant, though he was just across the command bridge of the Titan.
'The Death Guard can handle them,' replied Turnet. 'Concentrate on the artillery. That can hurt us.' Below Cassar, the gunmetal forms of the Death Guard glinted around the bunkers as two squads of them threw grenades through the gun ports and kicked down the doors, spraying the Isstvanians who still lived inside with bolter fire or incinerating them with sheets of fire from their flamers. From the head of the Dies Irae, the Death Guard looked like a swarm of beetles, with the carapaces of their power armour scuttling through the trenches.
A few Death Guard lay where they had fallen, cut down by artillery fire or the massed guns of the Isstvanian troops, but they were few compared to the Isstvanian corpses strewn at every intersection of trenches. Metre by metre the defenders were being driven towards the northernmost extent of the trenches, and when they reached the white marble of a tall Basilica with a spire shaped like a trident, they would be trapped and slaughtered.
Cassar shifted the weapon arm of the Dies Irae to aim at a booming artillery position some five hundred metres away, as it belched tongues of flame and threw explosive shells towards the Death Guard lines.
'Princeps!' called Cassar. 'Enemy artillery moving up on the eastern quadrant.'
Turnet didn't answer him, too intent on something being said to him on his personal command channel. The princeps nodded at whatever order he had just received and shouted, 'Halt! Aruken, cease the stride pattern. Cassar, shut off the ammunition feed.'
Cassar instinctively switched off the cycling of the weapon that thundered from the Titan's arm and the shock forced his consciousness back to the command bridge. He no longer looked through the eyes of the Dies Irae, but was back with his fellow officers.
'Princeps?' asked Cassar, scanning the readouts. 'Is there a malfunction? If there is, I'm not seeing it. The primary systems are reading fine.'
'It's not a malfunction,' replied Turnet sharply. Cassar looked up from information scrolling across his vision in unfocused columns.
'Moderati Cassar,' barked Turnet. 'How's our weapon temperature?'
'Acceptable,' said Cassar. 'I was going to push it on that artillery.'
'Close up the coolant ducts and seal the magazine feeds as soon as possible,'
'Princeps?' said Cassar in confusion. 'That will leave us unarmed.'
'I kno |
If there is, I'm not seeing it. The primary systems are reading fine.'
'It's not a malfunction,' replied Turnet sharply. Cassar looked up from information scrolling across his vision in unfocused columns.
'Moderati Cassar,' barked Turnet. 'How's our weapon temperature?'
'Acceptable,' said Cassar. 'I was going to push it on that artillery.'
'Close up the coolant ducts and seal the magazine feeds as soon as possible,'
'Princeps?' said Cassar in confusion. 'That will leave us unarmed.'
'I know that,' replied Turnet, as though to a simpleton. 'Do it. Aruken, I need us sealed.'
'Sealed, sir?' asked Aruken, sounding as confused as Cassar felt.
'Yes, sealed. We have to be airtight from top to bottom,' said Turnet, opening a channel to the rest of the mighty war machine's crew.
'All crew, this is Princeps Turnet. Adopt emergency biohazard posts, right now. The bulkheads are being sealed. Shut off the reactor vents and be prepared for power down.'
'Princeps,' said Aruken urgently. 'Is it a biological weapon? Atomics?'
'The Isstvanians have a weapon we didn't know about,' replied Turnet, but Cassar could tell he was lying. 'They're launching it soon. We have to lock down or we'll be caught in it.'
Cassar looked down at the trenches through the Titan's eyes. The Death Guard were still advancing through the trenches and bunker ruins. 'But princeps, the Astartes-'
'You have your orders, Moderati Cassar,' shouted Turnet, 'and you will follow them. Seal us up, every vent, every hatch or we die.'
Cassar willed the Dies Irae to shut its hatches and seal all its entranceways, his reluctance making the procedures sluggish.
On the ground below, he watched the Death Guard continue to grind their way through the Choral City's defenses, apparently unconcerned that the Isstvanians were about to launch Throne knew what at them, or unaware. As the battle raged on, the Dies Irae fell silent.
THE MAIN AUDIENCE chamber of the Vengeful Spirit was a colossal, columned chamber with walls of marble and pilasters of solid gold. Its magnificence was like nothing Sindermann had ever seen, and the thousands of remembrancers who filled the chamber wore the expressions of awed children who had been shown some new, unheard of wonder. Seeing many familiar faces, Sindermann guessed that the fleet's entire complement of remembrancers was present for the Warmaster's announcement.
The Warmaster and Maloghurst stood on a raised podium at the far end of the hall, too far away for either of them to recognize Sindermann, Mersadie or Euphrati.
Or at least he hoped so. Who knew how sharp an Astartes eyesight was, let alone a primarch's?
Both Astartes were wrapped in cream robes edged in gold and silver and a detail of warriors stood beside them. A number of large pict screens and been hung from the walls.
'It looks like an iterators' rally on a compliant world,' said Mersadie, echoing his own thoughts So similar was it that he began to wonder what message was to be imparted and how it would be reinforced. He looked around for plants in the audience who would clap and cheer at precise points to direct the crowd in the desired manner. Each of the screens displayed a slice of Isstvan III, set against a black backdrop scattered with bright silver specks of the Warmaster's fleet.
'Euphrati,' said Mersadie as they made their way through the crowds of remembrancers. 'Remember how I said that this was a bad idea?'
'Yes?' said Euphrati, her face creased in a wide, innocent smile.
'Well, now I think that this was a really bad idea. I mean, look at the number of Astartes here.'
Sindermann followed Mersadie's gaze, already starting to sweat at the sight of so many armed warriors surrounding them. If even one of them recognized their faces, it was all over.
'We have to see,' said Euphrati, turning and grabbing his sleeve. 'You have to see.'
Sindermann felt the heat of her touch and saw the fire behind her eyes, like thunder before a storm and he realized with a start, that he was a little afraid of Euphrati. The crowd milled in eager impatience and Sindermann kept his face turned from the Astartes staring into the middle of the audience chamber.
Euphrati squeezed Mersadie's hand as the pict screens leapt to life and a gasp went up from the assembled remembrancers as they saw the bloody streets of the Choral City. Clearly shot from an aircraft, the images filled the giant pict screens and Sindermann felt his gorge rise at the sight of so much butchery.
He remembered the carnage of the Whisperheads and reminded himself that this was what the Astartes had been created to do, but the sheer visceral nature of that reality was something he knew he would never get used to. Bodies filled the streets and arterial gore covered almost every surface as though the heavens had rained blood.
'You remembrancers say you want to see war,' said Horus, his voice easily carrying to the furthest corners of the hall. 'Well, this is it.'
Sindermann watched as the image shifted on the screen, pulling back and panning up through the sky and into the dark, star-spattered heavens above.
Burning spears of light fell towards the battle below.
'What are those?' asked Mersadie.
'They're bombs,' said Sindermann in horrified disbelief. 'The planet is being bombarded.'
'And so it begins,' said Euphrati.
THE PLAZA WAS a truly horrendous sight, ankle-deep in blood and strewn with thousands upon thousands of bodies. Most were blown open by bolter rounds, but many had been hacked down with chainblades or otherwise torn limb from limb.
Tarvitz hurried towards the makeshift strongpoint at its centre, the battlements formed from carved up bodies heaped between the battered forms of fallen drop-pods.
A World Eater with blood-soaked armour and a scarred face nodded to him as he climbed the gruesome ramp of bodies. The warrior's armour was so drenched in blood that Tarvitz wondered for a moment why he hadn't just painted himself red to begin with. 'Captain Ehrlen,' said Tarvitz. 'Where is he?' The warrior wasted no breath on words and simply jerked a thumb in the direction of a warrior with dozens of fluttering oath papers hanging from his breastplate. Tarvitz nodded his thanks and set off through the strongpoint. He passed wounded Astartes who were tended by an apothecary who looked as if he had fought as hard as any of his patients. Beside him lay two fallen World Eaters, their bodies unceremoniously dumped out of the way.
Ehrlen looked up as Tarvitz approached. The captain's face had been badly burned in some previous battle and his axe was clotted with so much blood that it better resembled a club.
'Looks like the Emperor's Children have sent us reinforcements!' shouted Ehrlen, to grunts of laughter from his fellow World Eaters. 'One whole warrior! We are blessed, the enemy will run away for sure.'
'Captain,' said Tarvitz, joining Ehrlen at the barricade of Isstvanian dead. 'My name is Captain Saul Tarvitz and I'm here to warn you that you have to get your squads into cover.'
'Into cover? Unacceptable,' said Ehrlen, nodding towards the far side of the plaza. Shapes moved in their windows and between the mansions. 'They're regrouping. If we move now they will overwhelm us.'
'The Isstvanians have a bio-weapon,' said Tarvitz, knowing a lie was the only way to convince the World Eaters. 'They're going to fire it. It'll kill everyone and everything in the Choral City.'
'They're going to destroy their own capital? I thought this place was some kind of church? Holy to them?'
'They've shown how much they value their own,' replied Tarvitz quickly, indicating the heaps of dead in front of them. 'They'll sacrifice this city to kill us. Driving us from their planet is worth more to them than this city.'
'So you would have us abandon this position?' demanded Ehrlen, as if Tarvitz had personally insulted his honour. 'How do you know all this?'
'I just got here from orbit. The weapon has already been unleashed. If you're above ground when the virus strike hits you will die. If you believe nothing else, believe that.'
'Then where do you suggest we move to?'
'Just to the west of this position, captain,' said Tarvitz, stealing a glance at the sky. 'The edge of the trench system is thick with bunkers, blast proof shelters. If you get your men into them, they should be safe.'
'Should be?' snapped Ehrlen. 'That's the best you can offer me?'
Ehrlen stared at Tarvitz for a moment. 'If you are wrong the blood of my warriors will be on your hands and I will kill you for their deaths.'
'I understand that, captain,' urged Tarvitz, 'but we don't have much time.'
'Very well, Captain Tarvitz,' said Ehrlen. 'Sergeant Fleiste, left flank! Sergeant Wronde, right! World Eaters, general advance to the west, blades out!'
The World Eaters drew their chainaxes and swords. The bloodstained assault units hurried to the front and stepped over the makeshift barricades of corpses.
'Are you coming, Tarvitz?' asked Ehrlen.
Tarvitz nodded, drawing his broadsword and following the World Eaters into the plaza.
Although they were fellow Astartes, he knew he was a stranger among them as they ran, spitting battle curses and splashing through the dead towards the potential safety of the bunkers.
Tarvitz glanced up at the gathering clouds and felt his chest tighten.
The first burning streaks were falling towards the city.
'IT'S STARTED,' said Loken.
Lachost looked up from the field vox. Fire was streaking through the sky towards the Choral City. Loken tried to judge the angle and speed of the falling darts of fire - some of them would come down between the spires of the Sirenhold, just like the Sons of Horus's own drop-pods had done hours earlier, and they would hit in a matter of minutes.
'Did Lucius say anything else?'
'No,' said Lachost. 'Some bio-weapon. That was all. It sounded like he ran into a fire fight.'
'Tarik,' shouted Loken. 'We need to get into cover, now. Beneath the Sirenhold.'
'Will t |
he sky towards the Choral City. Loken tried to judge the angle and speed of the falling darts of fire - some of them would come down between the spires of the Sirenhold, just like the Sons of Horus's own drop-pods had done hours earlier, and they would hit in a matter of minutes.
'Did Lucius say anything else?'
'No,' said Lachost. 'Some bio-weapon. That was all. It sounded like he ran into a fire fight.'
'Tarik,' shouted Loken. 'We need to get into cover, now. Beneath the Sirenhold.'
'Will that be enough?'
'If they dug their catacombs deep enough, then maybe.'
'And if not?'
'From what Lucius said, we'll die.'
'Then we'd better get a move on.'
Loken turned to the Sons of Horus advancing around him. 'Incoming! Get to the Sirenhold and head down! Now!'
The closest spire of the Sirenhold was a towering monstrosity of grotesque writhing figures and leering gargoyle faces, a vision taken from some ancient hell of Isstvan's myths. The Sons of Horus broke their advance formation and ran towards it.
Loken heard the distinctive boom of an airborne detonation high above the city and pushed himself harder as he entered the darkness of the tomb-spire. Inside, it was dark and ugly, the floor paved with tortured, half-human figures who reached up with stone hands, as if through the bars of a cage.
'There's a way down,' said Torgaddon. Loken followed as Astartes ran towards the catacomb entrance, a huge monstrous stone head with a passageway leading down its throat.
As the darkness closed around him, Loken heard a familiar sound drifting from beyond the walls of the Sirenhold.
It was screaming.
It was the song of the Choral City's death.
THE FIRST VIRUS bombs detonated high above the Choral City, the huge explosions spreading the deadly payloads far and wide into the atmosphere. Designed to kill every living thing on the surface of a planet, the viral strains released on Isstvan III were the most efficient killers in the Warmaster's arsenal. The bombs had a high enough yield to murder the planet a hundred times over and were set to burst at numerous differing altitudes and locations across the surface of the planet.
The virus leapt through forests and plains, sweeping along algal blooms and riding air currents across the globe. It crossed mountains, forded rivers, burrowed through glaciers. The Imperium's deadliest weapons, the Emperor himself had been loath to use them.
The bombs fell all across Isstvan III, but most of all, they fell on the Choral City.
THE WORLD EATERS were the furthest from cover and suffered the worst of the initial bombardment. Some had reached the safety of the bunkers, but many more had not. Warriors fell to their knees as the virus penetrated their armoured bodies, deadly corrosive agents laced into the viral structure of the weapons dissolving exposed pipes and armour joints, or finding their way inside through battle damage.
Astartes screamed. The sound was all the more shocking for its very existence rather than for the horror of its tone. The virus broke down cellular bonds at the molecular level and its victims literally dissolved into a soup of rancid meat within minutes of exposure, leaving little but sloshing suits of rotted armour. Even many of those who reached the safety of the sealed bunkers died in agony as they shut the doors only to find they had brought the lethal virus inside with them.
The virus spread through the civilian populace of Isstvan III at the speed of thought, leaping from victim to victim in the time it took to breathe in its foul contagion. People dropped where they stood, the flesh sloughing from their skeletons as their nervous systems collapsed and their bones turned to the consistency of jelly.
Bright explosions fed the viral feast, perpetuating the fatal reactions of corruption. The very lethality of the virus was its own worst enemy, for without a host organism to carry it from victim to victim, the virus quickly consumed itself.
However, the bombardment from orbit was unrelenting, smothering the entire planet in a precisely targeted array of overlapping fire plans that ensured that nothing would escape the virus.
Entire kingdoms and vassal states across the surface were obliterated in minutes. Ancient cultures that had survived Old Night and endured the horror of invasion a dozen times over fell without even knowing why, millions dying in screaming agony as their bodies betrayed them and fell apart, reducing them to rotted, decaying matter.
SINDERMANN WATCHED THE bloom of darkness spread across the slice of the planet visible on the giant pict screens. It spread in a wide black ring, eating its way across the surface of the planet with astonishing speed, leaving grey desolation behind it. Another wave of corruption crept in from another part of the surface, the two dark masses meeting and continuing to spread like the symptom of a horrible disease. 'What... what is it?' whispered Mersadie. 'You have already seen it,' said Euphrati. 'The Emperor showed you, through me. It is death.'
Sindermann's stomach lurched as he remembered the hideous vision of decay, his flesh disintegrating before him and black corruption consuming everything around him. That was what was happening on Isstvan III. This was the betrayal.
Sindermann felt as though the blood had drained from him. An entire world was bathed in the immensity of death. He felt an echo of the fear it brought to the people of Isstvan III, and that fear, multiplied across all those billions of people was beyond his comprehension.
'You are remembrancers,' said Keeler, a quiet sadness in her voice. 'Both of you. Remember this and pass it on. Someone must know.'
He nodded dumbly, too numbed by what he was seeing to say anything.
'Come on,' said Euphrati. 'We have to go.'
'Go?' sobbed Mersadie, her eyes still fixed on the death of a world. 'Go where?'
'Away,' smiled Euphrati, taking their hands and leading them through the immobile, horrified throng of remembrancers towards the edge of the chamber.
At first, Sindermann let her lead him, his limbs unable to do more than simply place one foot in front of another, but as he saw she was taking them towards the Astartes at the edge of the chamber, he began to pull back in alarm.
'Euphrati!' he hissed. 'What are you doing? If those Astartes recognize us-'
'Trust me, Kyril,' she said. 'I'm counting on that.' Euphrati led them towards a hulking warrior who stood apart from the others, and Sindermann knew enough of body language to know that this man was as horrified as they were at what was happening.
The Astartes turned to face them, his face craggy and ancient, worn like old leather.
Euphrati stopped in front of him and said, 'Iacton. I need your help.'
Iacton Qruze. Sindermann had heard Loken speak of him. The 'half-heard'.
He was a warrior of the old days, whose voice carried no weight amongst the higher echelons of command. A warrior of the old days...
'You need my help?' asked Qruze. 'Who are you?'
'My name is Euphrati Keeler and this is Mersadie Oliton,' said Euphrati, as if her introductions in the midst of such carnage were the most normal thing in the world, 'and this is Kyril Sindermann.'
Sindermann could see the recognition in Qruze's face and he closed his eyes as he awaited the inevitable shout that would see them revealed.
'Loken asked me to look out for you,' said Qruze.
'Loken?' asked Mersadie. 'Have you heard from him?'
Qruze shook his head, but said, 'He asked me to keep you safe while he was gone. I think I know what he meant now.'
'What do you mean?' asked Sindermann, not liking the way Qruze kept casting wary glances at the armed warriors that lined the walls of the chamber.
'Never mind,' said Qruze.
'Iacton,' commanded Euphrati, her voice laden with quiet authority. 'Look at me.'
The craggy-featured Astartes looked down at the slight form of Euphrati, and Sindermann could feel the power and determination that flowed from her.
'You are the half-heard no longer,' said Euphrati. 'Now your voice will be heard louder than any other in your Legion. You cling to the old ways and wish them to return with the fond nostalgia of the venerable. Those days are dying here, Iacton, but with your help we can bring them back again.'
'What are you talking about, woman?' snarled Qruze.
'I want you to remember Cthonia,' said Euphrati, and Sindermann recoiled as he felt an electric surge of energy spark from her, as if her very skin was charged.
'What do you know of the planet of my birth?'
'Only what I see inside you, Iacton,' said Euphrati, a soft glow building behind her eyes and filling her words with promise and seduction. 'The honour and the valor from which the Luna Wolves were forged. You are the only one who remembers, Iacton. You're the only one left that still embodies what it is to be an Astartes.'
'You know nothing of me,' he said, though Sindermann could see her words were reaching him, breaking down the barriers the Astartes erected between themselves and mortals.
'Your brothers called you the Half-heard, but you do not take them to task for it. I know this is because a Cthonian warrior is honorable and cares not for petty insults. I also know that your counsel is not heard because yours is the voice of a past age, when the Great Crusade was a noble thing, done not for gain, but for the good of all humankind.'
Sindermann watched as Qruze's face spoke volumes of the conflict raging within his soul.
Loyalty to his Legion vied with loyalty to the ideals that had forged it.
At last he smiled ruefully and said, '"Nothing too arduous" he said.'
He looked over towards the Warmaster and Maloghurst. 'Come,' he said. 'Follow me.'
'Where to?' asked Sindermann.
'To safety,' replied Qruze. 'Loken asked me to look out for you and that's what I'm going to do. Now be silent and follow me.'
Qruze turned on his heel and marched towards one of the many doors that led out of the audience chamber. Euphrati followed the |
Legion vied with loyalty to the ideals that had forged it.
At last he smiled ruefully and said, '"Nothing too arduous" he said.'
He looked over towards the Warmaster and Maloghurst. 'Come,' he said. 'Follow me.'
'Where to?' asked Sindermann.
'To safety,' replied Qruze. 'Loken asked me to look out for you and that's what I'm going to do. Now be silent and follow me.'
Qruze turned on his heel and marched towards one of the many doors that led out of the audience chamber. Euphrati followed the warrior and Sindermann and Mersadie trotted along after her, unsure as to where they were going or why. Qruze reached the door, a large portal of polished bronze guarded by two warriors, moving them aside with a chopping wave of his hand. 'I'm taking these ones below,' he said. 'Our orders are that no one is to leave,' said one of the guards.
'And I am issuing you new orders,' said Qruze, a steely determination that Sindermann had not noticed earlier underpinning his words. 'Move aside, or are you disobeying the order of a superior officer?'
'No, sir,' said the warriors, bowing and hauling open the bronze door.
Qruze nodded to the guards and gestured that the four of them should pass through.
Sindermann, Euphrati and Mersadie left the audience chamber, the door slamming behind them with an awful finality. With the sounds of the dying planet and the gasps of shock suddenly cut off, the silence that enveloped them was positively unnerving.
'Now what do we do?' asked Mersadie.
'I get us as far away from the Vengeful Spirit as possible,' answered Qruze.
'Off the ship?' asked Sindermann.
'Yes,' said Qruze. 'It is not safe for your kind now. Not safe at all.'
TWELVE
Cleansing
Let the galaxy burn
God Machine
THE SCREAMING OF the Choral City's death throes came in tremendous waves, battering against the Precentor's Palace like a tsunami. In the streets below and throughout the palace, the people of the Choral City were decaying where they stood, bodies coming apart in torrents of disintegrating flesh.
The people thronged in the streets to die, keening their hatred and fear up at the sky, imploring their gods to deliver them. Millions of people screamed at once and the result was a terrible black-stained gale of death. A Warsinger soared overhead, trying to ease the agony and terror of their deaths with her songs, but the virus found her too, and instead of singing the praises of Isstvan's gods she coughed out black plumes as the virus tore through her insides. She fell like a shot bird, twirling towards the dying below.
A bulky shape appeared on the roof of the Precentor's Palace. Ancient Rylanor strode to the edge of the roof, overlooking the scenes of horror below, the viral carnage seething between the buildings. Rylanor's dreadnought body was sealed against the world outside, sealed far more effectively than any Astartes armour, and the deathly wind swirled harmlessly around him as he watched the city's death unfold.
Rylanor looked up towards the sky, where far above, the Warmaster's fleet was still emptying the last of its deathly payload onto Isstvan III. The ancient dreadnought stood alone, the only note of peace in the screaming horror of the Choral City's death.
'GOOD JOB WE built these bunkers tough,' said Captain Ehrlen.
The darkness of the sealed bunker was only compounded by the sounds of death from beyond its thick walls. Pitifully few of the World Eaters had made it into the network of bunkers that fringed the edge of the trench network and barricaded themselves inside. They waited in the dark, listening to the virus killing off the city's population more efficiently than even their chainaxes could.
Tarvitz waited amongst them, listening to the deaths of millions of people in mute horror. The World Eaters appeared to be unmoved, the deaths of civilians meaning nothing to them.
The screaming was dying down, replaced by a dull moaning. Pain and fear mingled in a distant roar of slow death.
'How much longer must we hide like rats in the dark?' demanded Ehrlen.
'The virus will burn itself out quickly,' said Tarvitz. 'That's what it's designed to do: eat away anything living and leave a battlefield for the enemy to take.'
'How do you know?' asked Ehrlen. Tarvitz looked at him. He could tell Ehrlen the truth, and he knew that he deserved it, but what good would it do? The World Eaters might kill him for even saying it. After all, their own primarch was part of the Warmaster's conspiracy.
'I have seen such weapons employed before,' said Tarvitz.
'You had better be right,' snarled Ehrlen, sounding far from satisfied with Tarvitz's answer. 'I won't cower here for much longer!'
The World Eater looked over his warriors, their bloodstained armoured bodies packed close together in the darkness of the bunker. He raised his axe and called, 'Wrathe! Have you raised the Sons of Horus?'
'Not yet,' replied Wrathe. Tarvitz could see he was a veteran, with numerous cortical implants blistered across his scalp. 'There's chatter, but nothing direct.'
'So they're still alive?'
'Maybe.'
Ehrlen shook his head. 'They got us. We thought we'd taken this city and they got us.'
'None of us could have known,' said Tarvitz.
'No. There are no excuses,' Ehrlen's face hardened. 'The World Eaters must always go further than the enemy. When they attack, we charge right back at them. When they dig in, we dig them out. When they kill our warriors, we kill their cities, but this time, the enemy went further than we did. We attacked their city, and they destroyed it to take us with them.'
'We were all caught out, captain,' said Tarvitz. 'The Emperor's Children, too.'
'No, Tarvitz, this was our fight. The Emperor's Children and the Sons of Horus were to behead the beast, but we were sent to cut its heart out. This was an enemy that could not be scared away or thrown into confusion. The Isstvanians had to be killed. Whether the other Legions acknowledge it or not, the World Eaters were the ones who had to win this city, and we take responsibility for our failures.'
'It's not your responsibility,' said Tarvitz. 'A lesser soldier pretends that his failures are those of his commanders,' said Ehrlen. 'An Astartes realizes they are his alone.'
'No, captain,' said Tarvitz. 'You don't understand. I mean-'
'Got something,' said Wrathe from the corner of the bunker. 'The Sons of Horus?' asked Ehrlen.
Wrathe shook his head. 'Death Guard. They took cover in the bunkers further west.'
'What do they say?'
'That the virus is dying down.'
'Then we could be out there again soon,' said Ehrlen with relish. 'If the Isstvanians come to take their city back, they'll find us waiting for them.'
'No,' said Tarvitz. 'There's one more stage of the viral attack still to come.'
'What's that?' demanded Ehrlen.
'The firestorm,' said Tarvitz.
'YOU SEE NOW,' said Horus to the assembled remembrancers. 'This is war. This is cruelty and death. This is what we do for you and yet you turn your face from it.'
Weeping men and women clung to one another in the wake of such monstrous genocide, unable to comprehend the scale of the slaughter that had just been enacted in the name of the Imperium.
'You have come to my ship to chronicle the Great Crusade and there is much to be said for what you have achieved, but things change and times move on,' continued Horus as the Astartes warriors along the flanks of the chamber closed the doors and stood before them with their bolters held across their chests.
'The Great Crusade is over,' said Horus, his voice booming with power and strength. 'The ideals it once stood for are dead and all we have fought for has been a lie. Until now. Now I will bring the Crusade back to its rightful path and rescue the galaxy from its abandonment at the hands of the Emperor.'
Astonished gasps and wails spread around the chamber at Horus's words and he relished the freedom he felt in saying them out loud. The need for secrecy and misdirection was no more. Now he could unveil the grandeur of his designs for the galaxy and cast aside his false facade to reveal his true purpose.
'You cry out, but mere mortals cannot hope to comprehend the scale of my plans,' said Horus, savoring the looks of panic that began to spread around the audience chamber.
No iterator could ever have had a crowd so completely in the palm of his hand.
'Unfortunately, this means that there is no place for the likes of you in this new crusade. I am to embark on the greatest war ever unleashed on the galaxy, and I cannot be swayed from my course by those who harbor disloyalty.' Horus smiled.
The smile of an angelic executioner. 'Kill them,' he said. 'All of them.'
Bolter fire stabbed into the crowd at the Warmaster's order. Flesh burst in wet explosions and a hundred bodies fell in the first fusillade. The screaming began as the crowd surged away from the Astartes who marched into their midst. But there was no escape. Guns blazed and roaring chainswords rose and fell.
The slaughter took less than a minute and Horus turned away from the killing to watch the final death throes of Isstvan III. Abaddon emerged from the shadows where he and Maloghurst had watched the slaughter of the remembrancers.
'My lord,' said Abaddon, bowing low.
'What is it, my son?'
'Ship surveyors report that the virus has mostly burned out.'
'And the gaseous levels?'
'Off the scale, my lord,' smiled Abaddon. 'The gunners await your orders.'
Horus watched the swirling, noxious clouds enveloping the planet below.
All it would take was a single spark.
He imagined the planet as the frayed end of a fuse, a fuse that would ignite the galaxy in a searing conflagration and would lead to an inexorable conclusion on Terra.
'Order the guns to fire,' said Horus, his voice cold. 'Let the galaxy burn!'
'EMPEROR PRESERVE US,' whispered Moderati Cassar, unable to hide his horror and not caring who heard him. The miasma of rancid, putrid gasses still hung thickly around the Titan and he co |
eloping the planet below.
All it would take was a single spark.
He imagined the planet as the frayed end of a fuse, a fuse that would ignite the galaxy in a searing conflagration and would lead to an inexorable conclusion on Terra.
'Order the guns to fire,' said Horus, his voice cold. 'Let the galaxy burn!'
'EMPEROR PRESERVE US,' whispered Moderati Cassar, unable to hide his horror and not caring who heard him. The miasma of rancid, putrid gasses still hung thickly around the Titan and he could only dimly see the trenches again, along with the Death Guard emerging from the bunkers. Shortly after the order to seal the Titan had been given, the Death Guard had taken cover, clearly in receipt of the same order as the Dies Irae.
The Isstvanians had received no such order. The Death Guard's withdrawal had drawn the Isstvanian soldiers forwards and they had borne the full brunt of the bio-weapon.
Masses of mucus-like flesh choked the trenches, half-formed human corpses looming from them, faces melted and rot-bloated bodies split open. Thousands upon thousands of Isstvanians lay in rotting heaps and thick streams of sluggish black corruption ran the length of the trenches.
Beyond the battlefield, death had consumed the forests that lay just outside the Choral City's limits, now resembling endless graveyards of blackened trunks, like scorched skeletal hands. The earth beneath was saturated with biological death and the air was thick with foul gasses released by the oceans of decaying matter.
'Report,' said Princeps Turnet, re-entering the cockpit from the Titan's main dorsal cavity.
'We're sealed,' said Moderati Aruken on the other side of the bridge. 'The crew's fine and I have a zero reading of contaminants.'
'The virus has burned itself out,' said Turnet. 'Cassar, what's out there?'
Cassar took a moment to gather his thoughts, still struggling with the hideous magnitude of death that he couldn't have even imagined had he not seen it through the eyes of the Dies Irae.
'The Isstvanians are... gone,' he said. He peered through the swirling clouds of gas at the mass of the city to one side of the Titan. 'All of them.'
'The Death Guard?'
Cassar looked closer, seeing segments of gun-metal armour partially buried in gory chokepoints, marking where Astartes had fallen.
'Some of them were caught out there,' he said. 'A lot of them are dead, but the order must have got to most of them in time.'
'The order?'
'Yes, princeps. The order to take cover.'
Turnet peered through the Titan's eye on Aruken's side of the bridge, seeing Death Guard warriors through the greenish haze securing the trenches around their bunkers and treading through the foul remains of the Isstvanians.
'Damn,' said Turnet.
'We are blessed,' said Cassar. 'They could so easily have been-'
'Watch your mouth, Moderati! That religious filth is a crime by the order of-'
Turnet's voice cut off as movement caught his eyes.
Cassar followed his gaze in time to see the clouds of gas lit up by a brilliant beam of light as a blazing lance strike slashed through the clouds of noxious, highly flammable gasses.
ALL IT TOOK WAS a single spark.
An entire planet's worth of decaying matter wreathed the atmosphere of Isstvan III in a thick shawl of combustible gasses. The lance strike from the Vengeful Spirit burned through the upper atmosphere into the choking miasma and its searing beam ignited the gas with a dull whoosh that seemed to suck the oxygen from the air.
In a second, the air itself caught light, ripping across the landscape in a howling maelstrom of fire and noise. Entire continents were laid bare, their landscapes seared to bare rock, their decayed populations vaporized in seconds as winds of fire swept across their surfaces in a deadly gale of blazing destruction.
Cities exploded as gas lines went up, blazing towers of fire whipping madly in the deadly firestorm. Nothing could survive and flesh, stone and metal were vitrified or melted in the unimaginable temperatures. Entire sprawls of buildings collapsed, the bodies of their former occupants reduced to ashen waste on the wind, palaces of marble and industrial heartlands destroyed in gigantic mushroom clouds as the storm of destruction swept around Isstvan III with relentless, mindless destruction until it seemed as though the entire globe was ablaze.
Those Astartes who had survived the viral attack found themselves consumed in flames as they desperately sought to find cover once more.
But against this firestorm there could be no cover for those who had dared to brave the elements.
By the time the echoes of the recoil had faded on the Warmaster's flagship, billions had died on Isstvan III.
MODERATI CASSAR HUNG on for dear life as the tempestuous firestorm raged around the Dies Irae. The colossal Titan swayed like a reed in the wind, and he just hoped that the new stabilizing gyros the Mechanicum had installed held firm in the face of the onslaught.
Across from him, Aruken gripped the rails surrounding his chair with white knuckled hands, staring in awed terror at the blazing vortices spinning beyond the command bridge.
'Emperor save us. Emperor save us. Emperor save us,' he whispered over and over as the flames billowed and surged for what seemed like an eternity. The heat in the command bridge was intolerable since the coolant units had been shut down when the Titan was sealed off from the outside world.
Like a gigantic pressure cooker, the temperature inside the Titan climbed rapidly until Cassar felt as if he could no longer draw breath without searing the interior of his lungs. He closed his eyes and saw the ghostly green scroll of data flash through his retinas. Sweat poured from him in a torrent and he knew that this was it, this was how he would die: not in battle, not saying the Lectitio Divinitatus, but cooked to death inside his beloved Dies Irae.
He had lost track of how long they had been bathed in fire when the professional core of his mind saw that the temperature readings, which had been rising rapidly since the firestorm had hit, were beginning to flatten out. Cassar opened his eyes and saw the madly churning mass of flame through the viewing bays of the Titan's head, but he also saw spots of sky, burned blue as the fire incinerated the last of the combustible gasses released by the dead of Isstvan.
'Temperature dropping,' he said, amazed that they were still alive.
Aruken laughed as he too realized they were going to live.
Princeps Turnet slid back into his command chair and began bringing the Titan's systems back on line. Cassar slid back into his own chair, the leather soaking wet where his sweat had collected. He saw the readouts of the external surveyors come to life as the princeps once again opened their systems to the outside world. 'Systems check,' ordered Turnet. Aruken nodded, mopping his sweat-streaked brow with his sleeve. 'Weapons fine, though we'll need to watch our rate of fire, since they're already pretty hot.'
'Confirmed,' said Cassar. 'We won't be able to fire the plasma weapons any time soon either. We'll probably blow our arm off if we try.'
'Understood,' said Turnet. 'Initiate emergency coolant procedures. I want those guns ready to fire as soon as possible.'
Cassar nodded, though he was unsure as to the cause of the princeps's urgency. Surely there could be nothing out there that would have survived the firestorm? Certainly nothing that could threaten a Titan.
'Incoming!' called Aruken, and Cassar looked up to see a flock of black specks descending rapidly through the crystal sky, flying low towards the blackened ruins of the burned city.
'Aruken, track them,' snapped Turnet.
'Gunships,' said Aruken. 'They're heading for the centre of the city, what's left of the palace.'
'Whose are they?'
'Can't tell yet.'
Cassar sat back in the cockpit seat and let the filaments of the Titan's command systems come to the fore of his mind once again. He engaged the Titan's targeting systems and his vision plunged into the target reticule, zooming in on the formation of gunships disappearing among the crumbling, fire-blackened ruins of the Choral City. He saw bone-white colours trimmed with blue and the symbol of fanged jaws closing over a planet.
'World Eaters,' he said out loud. 'They're the World Eaters. It must be the second wave.'
'There is no second wave,' said Turnet, as if to himself. 'Aruken, get the vox-mast up and connect me to the Vengeful Spirit.'
'Fleet command?' asked Aruken. 'No,' said Turnet, 'the Warmaster.'
IACTON QRUZE LED them through the corridors of the Vengeful Spirit, past the Training Halls, past the Lupercal's Court and down through twisting passageways none of them had traversed before, even when they had been hiding from Maggard and Maloghurst.
Sindermann's heart beat a rapid tattoo on his ribs, and he felt a curious mix of elation and sorrow fill him as he realized what Qruze had saved them from. There could be little doubt as to what must have happened to those remembrancers in the Audience Chamber and the thought of so many wonderful creative people sacrificed to serve the interests of those with no understanding of art or the creative process galled him and saddened him in equal measure.
He glanced at Euphrati Keeler, who appeared to have become stronger since their escape from death. Her hair was golden and her eyes bright, and though her skin was still pallid, it only served to highlight the power within her.
Mersadie Oliton, by contrast, was visibly weakening.
'They will come after us soon,' said Keeler, 'if they are not already.'
'Can we escape?' Mersadie asked, hoarsely.
Qruze only shrugged. 'We will or we won't.'
'Then this is it?' asked Sindermann.
Keeler shot him an amused glance. 'No, you should know better than that, Kyril. It is never "it", not for a believer. There's always more, something to look forward to when it's all over.'
They passed a number of observation domes that looked out |
rsadie Oliton, by contrast, was visibly weakening.
'They will come after us soon,' said Keeler, 'if they are not already.'
'Can we escape?' Mersadie asked, hoarsely.
Qruze only shrugged. 'We will or we won't.'
'Then this is it?' asked Sindermann.
Keeler shot him an amused glance. 'No, you should know better than that, Kyril. It is never "it", not for a believer. There's always more, something to look forward to when it's all over.'
They passed a number of observation domes that looked out into the cold void of space, the sight only serving to remind Sindermann of just how tiny they were in the context of the galaxy. Even the faintest speck of light that he could see was actually a star, perhaps surrounded by its own worlds, its own people and entire civilizations.
'How is it that we find ourselves at the centre of such momentous events and yet we never saw them coming?' he whispered.
After a while, Sindermann began to recognize his surroundings, seeing familiar signs scraped into bulkheads, and insignia he recognized, telling him that they were approaching the embarkation decks. Qruze led the way unerringly, his stride sure and confident, a far cry from the wretched sycophant he had heard described.
The blast doors to the embarkation deck were closed, the tattered remnants of the votive papers and offerings made to the Warmaster when his sons took him to the Delphos still fixed to the surrounding structure.
'In here,' said Qruze. 'If we're lucky, there will be a gunship we can take.'
'And go where?' demanded Mersadie. 'Where can we go that the Warmaster won't find us?'
Keeler reached out and placed her hand on Mersadie's arm. 'Don't worry. We have more friends than you know, Sadie. The Emperor will show me the way.'
The doors rumbled open and Qruze marched confidently onto the embarkation deck. Sindermann smiled in relief when the warrior said, 'There. Thunderhawk Nine Delta.'
But the smile fell from his face as he saw the gold-armoured form of Maggard standing before the machine.
SAUL TARVITZ WATCHED the look of utter disbelief on Captain Ehrlen's face as he took in the scale of the destruction wrought by the firestorm. Nothing remained of the Choral City as they had known it. Every scrap of living tissue was gone, burned to atoms by the flames that roared and howled in the wake of the virus attack.
Every building was black, burned and collapsed so that Isstvan III resembled a vision of hell, its tumbled buildings still ablaze as the last combustible materials burned away. Tall plumes of fire poured skyward in defiance of gravity, fuel lines and refineries that would continue to burn until their reserves were exhausted. The stench of scorched metal and meat was pungent and the vista before them was unrecognizable as that which they had fought across only minutes before.
'Why?' was all Ehrlen could ask.
'I don't know,' said Tarvitz, wishing he had more to tell the World Eater.
'This wasn't the Isstvanians, was it?' asked Ehrlen.
Tarvitz wanted to lie, but he knew that the World Eater would see through him instantly.
'No,' he said. 'It wasn't.'
'We are betrayed?'
Tarvitz nodded.
'Why?' repeated Ehrlen.
'I have no answers for you, brother, but if they hoped to kill us all in one fell swoop, then they have failed.'
'And the World Eaters will make them pay for that failure,' swore Ehrlen, as a new sound rose over the crackle of burning buildings and tumbling masonry.
Tarvitz heard it too and looked up in time to see a flock of World Eaters' gunships streaking towards their position from the outskirts of the city. Gunfire came down in a burning spray, punching through the ruins around them, boring holes in the black marble of the ground.
'Hold!' shouted Ehrlen.
Heavy fire thudded down among the World Eaters as the gunships roared overhead. Tarvitz crouched at a smashed window opening beside Ehrlen, hearing one of the World Eaters grunt in pain as a shell found its mark.
The gunships passed and soared up into the sky, looping around above the shattered palace before angling down for another run.
'Heavy weapons! Get some fire up there!' yelled Ehrlen.
Gunfire stuttered up from the gaps in partially collapsed roofs, chattering heavy bolters and the occasional ruby flare of a lascannon blast. Tarvitz ducked back from the window as return fire thundered down, stitching lines of explosions through the World Eaters. More of them fell, blown off their feet or blasted apart.
One World Eater slumped down beside Tarvitz, the back of his head a pulsing red mass.
The gunships banked, spraying fire down at their position.
Tarvitz could see the World Eaters zeroing in on them as they flew back towards their position. Return fire lanced upwards and one gunship fell, its engine spewing flames, to smash to pieces against a burning ruin.
Tarvitz could see dozens of gunships, surely the whole of the World Eaters' arsenal.
The lead Thunderhawk dropped through the ruins, hovering a few metres above the ground with its assault ramp down and bolter fire sparking around the opening.
Ehrlen turned towards Tarvitz.
'This isn't your fight,' he yelled over the gunfire. 'Get out of here!'
'Emperor's Children never run!' replied Tarvitz, drawing his sword.
'They do from this!'
No Space Marine could have survived the storm of fire that blazed away at the interior of the gunship, but it was no ordinary Space Marine that was borne within it.
With a roar like a hunting animal, Angron leapt from the gunship and landed with a terrible crash in the midst of the ruined city.
He was a monster of legend, huge and terrible. The primarch's hideous face was twisted in hatred, his huge chainaxes battered and stained with decades of bloodshed. As the mighty primarch landed, World Eaters dropped from the other gunships.
Thousands of World Eaters loyal to the Warmaster followed their primarch into the Choral City, accompanied by the war cries that echoed Angron's own bestial howl as he charged into his former brethren.
HORUS PUT HIS fist through the pict-screen that showed the transmission from the Dies Irae. The image of the World Eaters' gunships splintered under the assault as his anger at Angron's defiance boiled over. One of his allies - no, one of his subordinates - had disobeyed his direct order.
Aximand, Abaddon, Erebus and Maloghurst eyed him warily and Horus could imagine their trepidation at the news of Angron's impetuous attack on the survivors of the virus bombing.
That there were survivors at all was galling, but Angron's actions put a whole new spin on the Isstvan campaign.
'And yet,' he said, choking back his rage, 'I am surprised at this.'
'Warmaster,' said Aximand, 'what do you-'
'Angron is a killer!' snapped Horus, rounding on his Mournival son. 'He solves every problem with raw violence. He attacks first and thinks later, if he thinks at all. And yet I never saw this! What else would he do when he saw the survivors of his Legion in the Choral City? Would he sit back and watch the rest of the fleet bombard them from orbit? Never! And yet I did nothing!'
Horus glanced at the smashed remains of the pict-display. 'I will never be caught out like this again. There will be no twists of fate I do not see coming.'
'The questions remains,' said Aximand. 'What shall we do about Angron?'
'Destroy him with the rest of the city,' said Abaddon without a pause. 'If he cannot be trusted to obey his Warmaster then he is a liability.'
'The World Eaters are an exceptionally effective weapon of terror,' retorted Aximand. 'Why destroy them when they can wreak so much havoc among those loyal to the Emperor?'
'There are always more soldiers,' said Abaddon. 'Many will beg to join the Warmaster. There is no room for those who can't follow orders.'
'Angron is a killer, yes, but he is predictable,' put in Erebus, and Horus bristled at the implicit insult in the first chaplain's words. 'He can be kept obedient by letting him off the leash every now and again.'
'The Word Bearers may live by treachery and lies,' snarled Abaddon, 'but in the Sons of Horus you are loyal or you are dead!'
'What do you know of my Legion?' asked Erebus, rising to meet the first captain's ire, his mask of smirking calm slipping. 'I know secrets that would destroy your mind! How dare you speak to me of deceit? This, this reality, all you know, this is the lie!'
'Erebus!' roared Horus, ending the confrontation instantly. 'This is not the place to evangelize your Legion. I have made my decision and these are wasted words.'
'Then Angron will be destroyed in the bombardment?' asked Maloghurst. 'No,' replied Horus. 'He will not.'
'But Warmaster, even if Angron prevails he could be down there for weeks,' said Aximand.
'And he will not fight alone. Do you know, my sons, why the Emperor appointed me Warmaster?'
'Because you were his favored son,' replied Maloghurst. 'You are the greatest warrior and tactician of the Great Crusade. Whole worlds have fallen at the mention of your name.'
'I did not ask for flattery,' snarled Horus.
'Because you never lose,' said Abaddon levelly.
'I never lose,' nodded Horus, glaring between the four Astartes, 'because I see only victory. I have never seen a situation that cannot be turned into triumph, no disadvantage that cannot be turned to an advantage. That is why I was made Warmaster. On Davin I fell, yet came through that ordeal stronger. Against the Auretian Technocracy we faced dissent from within our own fleet, so I used the conflict to rid us of those fomenting rebellion. There is no failing I cannot turn to a component in my victories. Angron has decided to turn Isstvan III into a ground assault - I can consider this a failure and limit its impact by bombing Angron and his World Eaters into dust along with the rest of the planet, or I can forge a triumph from it that will send echoes far into the future.'
Maloghurst broke the silence that followed. 'What would you have us do, Warmaster?'
'Info |
eet, so I used the conflict to rid us of those fomenting rebellion. There is no failing I cannot turn to a component in my victories. Angron has decided to turn Isstvan III into a ground assault - I can consider this a failure and limit its impact by bombing Angron and his World Eaters into dust along with the rest of the planet, or I can forge a triumph from it that will send echoes far into the future.'
Maloghurst broke the silence that followed. 'What would you have us do, Warmaster?'
'Inform the other Legions that they are to prepare for a full assault on the loyalists in the Choral City. Ezekyle, assemble the Legion. Have them ready to launch the attack in two hours.'
'I shall be proud to lead my Legion,' said Abaddon.
'You will not lead them. That honour will go to Sedirae and Targost.'
Anger flared in Abaddon. 'But I am the first captain. This battle, where resolve and brutality are qualities required for victory, is tailor-made for me!'
'You are a captain of the Mournival, Ezekyle,' said Horus. 'I have another role in mind for you and Little Horus in this fight. One I feel sure you will relish.'
'Yes, Warmaster,' said Abaddon, the frustration disappearing from his face.
'As for you, Erebus...'
'Warmaster?'
'Stay out of our way. To your duties, Sons of Horus.'
THIRTEEN
Maggard
Factions
Luna Wolves
PRINCEPS TURNET LISTENED intently as the orders came through, though Cassar couldn't hear the orders piped into the princeps's ear and he didn't want to - it was all he could do to keep from vomiting. Every time he let his mind wander outside the systems of the Dies Irae, he saw nothing but the tangles of charred ruins. His consciousness retreated within the machine, pulling his perception back into the massive form of the Titan.
The Dies Irae was coming back to life around him; he could sense the god-machine's limbs flood with power and could feel the weapons reloading. The plasma reactor at its heart was beating in time with his own, a ball of nuclear flame that burned with the Emperor's own righteous strength.
Even here, among all this death and horror, the Emperor was with him. The god-machine was the instrument of His will, standing firm among the destruction. That thought comforted Cassar and helped him focus. If the Emperor was here, then the Emperor would protect.
'Orders in from the Vengeful Spirit,' said Turnet briskly. 'Moderati, open fire.'
'Open fire?' said Aruken. 'Sir? The Isstvanians are gone. They're dead.'
To Cassar, Aruken's voice sounded distant, for he was subsumed in the systems of the Titan, but he heard Turnet's voice as clearly as if he had spoken in his own ear.
'Not at the Isstvanians,' replied Turnet, 'at the Death Guard.'
'Princeps?' said Aruken. 'Fire on the Death Guard?'
'I am not in the habit of repeating my orders, moderati,' replied Turnet, 'and they are to fire on the Death Guard. They have defied the Warmaster.'
Cassar froze. As if there wasn't enough death on Isstvan III, now the Dies Irae was to fire on the Death Guard, the very force they had been sent to support.
'Sir,' he said. 'This doesn't make any sense.'
'It doesn't need to!' shouted Turnet, his patience finally at an end. 'Just do as I order.'
Looking straight into Turnet's eyes, the truth hit Titus Cassar as though the Emperor had reached out from Terra and filled him with the light of truth.
'The Isstvanians didn't do this, did they?' he asked. 'The Warmaster did.'
Turnet's face creased in a slow smile and Cassar saw his hand reaching towards his holstered sidearm.
Cassar didn't give him the chance to get there first and snatched for his own autopistol.
Both men drew their pistols and fired.
MAGGARD TOOK A step forwards, drawing his golden Kirlian blade and unholstering his pistol. His bulk was even more massive than Sindermann remembered, grossly swollen to proportions beyond human and more reminiscent of an Astartes. Had that been Maggard's reward for his services to the Warmaster?
Without wasting words of preamble, Qruze raised his bolter and fired, but Maggard's armour was the equal of Astartes plate and the shot simply signalled the beginning of a duel.
Sindermann and Mersadie ducked as Maggard's pistol spat fire, the noise appalling as the two warriors ran towards one another with their guns blazing.
Keeler watched calmly as Maggard's gunfire blew chunks from Qruze's armour, but before he could fire any more, Qruze was upon him.
Qruze smashed his fist into Maggard's midriff, but the silent killer rode the punch and swung his sword for the Astartes's head. Qruze ducked back from the great slash of Maggard's sword, the blade slicing though the armour at the Astartes warrior's stomach.
Blood sprayed briefly from the wound and Qruze dropped to his knees in sudden pain before drawing his combat knife, the blade as long as a mortal warrior's sword.
Maggard leapt towards him and his sword hacked a deep gouge in Qruze's side. Yet more blood spilled from the venerable Astartes's body. Another killing strike slashed towards Qruze, but this time combat knife and Kirlian blade met in a shower of fiery sparks. Qruze recovered first and stabbed his blade through the gap between Maggard's greaves. The assassin stumbled backwards and Qruze rose unsteadily to his feet.
The assassin stepped in close and lunged with his sword. Maggard was almost the equal of Qruze in physique and had youth on his side, but even Sindermann could see he was slower, as if his new form was unfamiliar, not yet worn in.
Qruze sidestepped a huge arcing strike of Maggard's sword and swung inside his opponent's defence, reaching around to lock his head in the crook of his elbow.
His other arm snapped round to plunge the knife into Maggard's throat, but a fist seized Qruze's hand in an iron grip, halting the blade inches from the man's pulsing jugular.
Qruze fought to force the blade upwards, but Maggard's newly enhanced strength was the greater and he began to force the blade to one side. Beads of sweat popped on Qruze's face, and Sindermann knew that this was a struggle he could not win alone.
He pushed himself to his feet and ran towards Maggard's fallen pistol, its matt black finish cold and lethal-looking. Though designed for a mortal grip, the pistol still felt absurdly huge in his hands. Sindermann held the heavy pistol outstretched and marched towards the struggling warriors. He couldn't risk a shot from any kind of distance, he was no marksman and was as likely to hit their deliverer as their killer.
He walked up to the fight and placed the muzzle of the pistol directly on the bleeding wound where Qruze had stabbed Maggard. He pulled the trigger and the recoil of the shot almost shattered his wrist, but the effect of his intervention more than made up for the trauma.
Maggard opened his mouth in a silent scream and his entire body flinched in sudden agony. Maggard's grip on the knife weakened and, with a roar of anger, Qruze punched it into the base of his opponent's jaw and through the roof of his mouth. Maggard buckled and fell to the side with the force of a falling tree. The golden armoured assassin and the Astartes rolled and Qruze was on top of his enemy, still gripping the knife.
Face to face for a moment, Maggard spat a mouthful of blood into Qruze's face. Qruze pushed the knife deeper into Maggard's jaw, plunging it into his opponent's brain.
Maggard spasmed, his huge bulk thrashing briefly, and when he stopped Qruze was looking into a pair of blank, dead eyes. Qruze pushed himself from Maggard's body. 'Face to face,' said Qruze, breathing heavily with the exertion of killing Maggard. 'Not with treachery, from a thousand miles up. Face to face.'
He looked at Sindermann and nodded his thanks. The warrior was wounded and exhausted, but there was a calm serenity to him.
'I remember how it used to be,' he said. 'We were brothers on Cthonia. Not just among ourselves, but with our enemies, too. That was what the Emperor saw in us when he came to the hives. We were gangs of killers as existed on a thousand other worlds, but we believed in a code that was more precious than life. That was what he wrought into the Luna Wolves. I thought that even if none of the rest of us remembered, the Warmaster would, because he was the one the Emperor chose to lead us.'
'No,' said Keeler, 'you are the last one.'
'And when I realized that I just... told them what they wanted to hear. I tried to be one of them, and I succeeded. I almost forgot everything, until... until now.'
'The music of the spheres,' said Sindermann quietly.
Qruze's eyes focused again on Keeler and his face hardened.
'I did nothing, Half-heard,' said Keeler, answering his unasked question. 'You said so yourself. The ways of Cthonia were the reason the Emperor chose you and your brothers for the Luna Wolves. Perhaps it was the Emperor who reminded you.'
'I saw this coming for so long, but I let it, because I thought that was my code now, but nothing changed, not really. The enemy just moved from out there to amongst us.'
'Look, as profound as this all is, can we get the hell out of here?' asked Mersadie.
Qruze nodded and beckoned them towards the Thunderhawk gunship. 'You're right, Miss Oliton, let's get off this ship. It is dead to me now.'
'We're with you, captain,' said Sindermann as he gingerly picked his way over Maggard's body after Qruze. The years seemed to have dropped from him, as if the energy lost in the fight was returning with interest. Sindermann saw a light in his eyes he hadn't seen before.
Watching the light of understanding rekindled in Iacton Qruze reminded Sindermann that there was still hope.
And there was nothing so dangerous in the galaxy as a little hope.
TURNET'S SHOT WENT high, and Cassar's went wide. Jonah Aruken ducked for cover as the rounds ricocheted on the curved ceiling of the bridge. Turnet rolled down behind the command chair as Cassar pulled himself from his own chair, set deep into the cockpi |
nterest. Sindermann saw a light in his eyes he hadn't seen before.
Watching the light of understanding rekindled in Iacton Qruze reminded Sindermann that there was still hope.
And there was nothing so dangerous in the galaxy as a little hope.
TURNET'S SHOT WENT high, and Cassar's went wide. Jonah Aruken ducked for cover as the rounds ricocheted on the curved ceiling of the bridge. Turnet rolled down behind the command chair as Cassar pulled himself from his own chair, set deep into the cockpit floor and level with the Titan's eye. Cassar fired again and sparks showered as the autopistol round hit the electronics arrayed around Turner's chair.
Turnet fired back and Cassar dropped into the cover of the depression formed by his own seat. The connectors had torn free from his scalp as he moved and tears of blood streaked his face, metallic monofilament wires clinging wetly to the back of his neck.
His mind throbbed with the suddenness of being ripped away from the god-machine. 'Titus!' yelled Aruken. "What are you doing?'
'Moderati, surrender or you will die here!' shouted Turnet. 'Throw down your weapon and surrender.'
'This is treachery!' shouted Cassar. 'Jonah, you know I am right. The Warmaster did this. He brought death to this city to kill the believers!'
Turnet fired blindly from behind the elaborate machinery of the command seat. 'Believe? You would betray your Warmaster because of this religion? You're diseased, do you know that? Religion is a sickness, and I should have put you down a long time ago.'
Cassar thought rapidly. There was only one way out of the cockpit - the doorway that led into the Titan's dorsal cavity where the plasma generator was located along with the detail of engineer crewmen who operated it. He couldn't run, for fear of Turnet shooting him dead as he broke from cover. But the same was true of Turnet. They were both trapped.
'You knew,' said Cassar, 'about the bombardment.'
'Of course I knew. How can you be so ignorant? Don't you even know what's happening on this planet?'
'The Emperor is being betrayed,' said Cassar. 'There is no Emperor!' shouted Turnet. 'He abandoned us. He left the Imperium that men died to conquer for him. He doesn't care. But the Warmaster cares. He conquered this galaxy and it is his to rule, but there are fools who don't understand that. They are the ones who have forced the Warmaster into this so that he can do what must be done.'
Cassar's mind reeled. Turnet had betrayed everything the Emperor had built, and the combat within the command bridge struck Cassar as representative of what was happening in the wider conflict.
Turnet rose and fired wildly as he ran for the door, both shots smacking into the bridge wall behind Cassar.
'I won't let you do this!' yelled Cassar, returning fire. His first shot went wide, but now Princeps Turnet was struggling with the wheel lock of the door. Cassar lined up his shot on Turnet's back. 'Titus! Don't do it!' shouted Aruken, wrenching the Titan's primary motor controls around. The Titan lurched madly, the whole bridge tipping like the deck of a ship in a storm. Cassar was thrown back against the wall, the opportunity to take his shot gone. Turnet hauled the door open, throwing himself from the Titan's bridge and out of Cassar's firing line.
Cassar scrambled to his feet again as the Titan rocked upright. A shape moved in front of him and he almost fired before realizing it was Jonah Aruken.
'Titus, come on,' said Aruken. 'Don't do this.'
'I don't have a choice. This is treachery.'
'You don't have to die.'
Cassar jerked his head towards the Titan's eye, through which they could still see the Death Guard moving through the death-slicked trenches. 'Neither do they. You know I am right, Aruken. You know the Warmaster has betrayed the Imperium. If we have the Dies Irae then we can do something about it.'
Aruken looked from Cassar's face to the gun in his hand. 'It's over, Cassar. Just... just give this up.'
'With me or against me, Jonah,' said Cassar levelly. 'The Emperor's faithful or His enemy? Your choice.'
IT HAD OFTEN been said that a Space Marine knew no fear.
Such a statement was not literally true, a Space Marine could know fear, but he had the training and discipline to deal with it and not let it affect him in battle. Captain Saul Tarvitz was no exception, he had faced storms of gunfire and monstrous aliens and even glimpsed the insane predators of the warp, but when Angron charged, he ran.
The primarch smashed through the ruins like a juggernaut. He bellowed insanely and with one sweep of his chainaxe carved two loyal World Eaters in two, bringing his off-hand axe down to bite through the torso of a third. His traitor World Eaters dived over the rubble, blasting with pistols or stabbing with chainblades.
'Die!' bellowed Captain Ehrlen as the loyalists counter-charged, throwing themselves into the enemy as one. Tarvitz was used to Astartes who fought in feints and counter-charges, overlapping fields of fire, picking the enemy apart or sweeping through his ranks with grace and precision. The World Eaters did not fight with the perfection of the Emperor's Children. They fought with anger and hatred, with brutality and the lust for destruction.
And they fought with more hatred than ever before against their own, against the battle-brothers they had warred alongside for years.
Tarvitz scrambled back from the carnage. World Eaters shouldered past him as they charged at Angron, but the butchered bodies lying around showed what fate awaited them. Tarvitz put his shoulder down and hammered through a ruined wall, sprawling into a courtyard where statues stood scarred and beheaded by the day's earlier battles.
He glanced behind him. Thousands of World Eaters were locked in a terrible hurricane of carnage, scrambling to get at one another. At the centre of the bloody hurricane was Angron, massive and terrible as he laid about him with his axes.
Captain Ehrlen crashed down a short distance from him and the World Eater's eyes flickered over Tarvitz before he rolled onto his back and pulled himself to his feet. Ehrlen's face was torn open, a red mask of blood with his eyes the only recognisable feature. A pack of World Eaters descended on him, piling him to the ground and working at him as though they were carving up a side of meat.
Volleys of bolter shots thudded through the walls and the battle spilled into the courtyard, World Eaters wrestling with one another and forcing bolters up to fire point blank or disemboweling their battle-brothers with chainaxes. Tarvitz kicked himself to his feet and ran as a wall collapsed and a dozen traitors surged forward.
He threw himself behind a pillar, bolt shells blasting chunks of marble from it in concussive impacts. The sound of battle followed him and Tarvitz knew that he had to try and find the Emperor's Children. Only with his fellow warriors alongside him could he impose some form of order on this chaotic fight.
Tarvitz ran, realizing that gunfire was directed at him from all angles. He charged through the ruins of a grand dining hall and into a cavernous stonewalled kitchen.
He kept running and smashed his way through the ruins until he found himself in the streets of the Choral City. A burning gunship streaked overhead and crashed into a building in an orange plume of flame as gunfire stuttered throughout the ruins he had just vacated and Angron's roaring cut through the din of battle.
The magnificent dome of the Precentor's Palace rose above the battle unfolding across the blackened remains of the city.
As Tarvitz made his way through the carnage towards his beloved Emperor's Children, he promised that if he was to meet his death on this blasted world, then he would meet it amongst his battle-brothers, and in death defy the hatred the Warmaster had sown amongst them.
LOKEN WATCHED THE Sons of Horus landing on the far side of the Sirenhold. His Space Marines - he couldn't think of them as 'Sons of Horus' any more - were arrayed around the closest tomb-spire in a formidable defensive formation.
His heavy weapons commanded the valley of shrines through which attackers would have to advance and the Tactical Marines held hard points of ruins where they would fight on their own terms.
But the enemy was not the Isstvanian army, they were his brothers.
'I thought they'd bomb us,' said Torgaddon.
'They should have done,' replied Loken. 'Something went wrong.'
'It'll be Abaddon,' said Torgaddon. 'He must have been itching for a chance to take us on face-to-face. Horus couldn't have held him back.'
'Or Sedirae,' echoed Loken, distaste in his voice. The afternoon sun hung in veils between the shadows cast by the walls and the tomb-spires.
'I never thought it would end like this, Tarik,' said Loken. 'Maybe storming some alien citadel or defending... defending Terra, like something from the epic poems, something romantic, something the remembrancers could get their teeth into. I never thought it could end defending a hole like this against my own battle-brothers'
'Yes, but then you always were an idealist.'
The Sons of Horus were coming down on the far side of the tomb-spire across the valley, the optimal point to strike from, and Loken knew that this would be the hardest battle he would ever have to fight.
'We don't have to die here,' said Torgaddon.
Loken looked at him. 'I know, we can win. We can throw everything we have at them. I'll lead them in from the front and then there's a chance that-'
'No,' said Torgaddon. 'I mean we don't have to hold them here. We know we can get through the main gates into the city. If we strike for the Precentor's Palace we could link up with the Emperor's Children or the World Eaters. Lucius said the warning came from Saul Tarvitz so they know we are betrayed.'
'Saul Tarvitz is on Isstvan III?' asked Loken, sudden hope flaring in his heart.
'Apparently so,' nodded Torgaddon. 'We could help them. Fortify the pal |
e front and then there's a chance that-'
'No,' said Torgaddon. 'I mean we don't have to hold them here. We know we can get through the main gates into the city. If we strike for the Precentor's Palace we could link up with the Emperor's Children or the World Eaters. Lucius said the warning came from Saul Tarvitz so they know we are betrayed.'
'Saul Tarvitz is on Isstvan III?' asked Loken, sudden hope flaring in his heart.
'Apparently so,' nodded Torgaddon. 'We could help them. Fortify the palace.'
Loken looked back across at the tangle of shrines and tomb-spires. 'You would retreat?'
'I would when there's no chance of victory and we can fight on better terms elsewhere.'
'We'll never have another chance to face them on our own terms, Tarik. The Choral City is gone, this whole damn planet is dead. It's about punishing them for their betrayal and the brothers we have lost.'
'We all lost brothers here, Garvi, but dying needlessly won't bring them back. I will have my vengeance, too, but I'm not throwing away the few warriors I have left in a knee jerk act of defiance. Think about this, Loken. Really think, about why you want to fight them here.'
Loken could hear the first bursts of gunfire and knew Torgaddon was right. They were still the best trained, most disciplined of the Legions and he knew that if he wanted to fight those who had betrayed him, he had to fight with his head and not his heart.
'You're right, Tarik,' said Loken. 'We should link up with Tarvitz. We need to get organized to launch a counter-attack.'
'We can really make them suffer, Garvi, we can force them into a battle and delay them. If Tarvitz got the warning out here, who's to say that there aren't others carrying a warning to Terra? Maybe the other Legions already know what's happened. Someone underestimated us, they thought this would be a massacre, but we'll go one better. We'll turn Isstvan III into a war.'
'Do you think we can?'
'We're the Luna Wolves, Garvi. We can do anything.'
Loken took his friend's hand, accepting the truth of his words. He turned to the squads arrayed behind him, scanning the valley through their gun-sights.
'Astartes!' he shouted. 'You all know what has happened and I share your pain and outrage, but I need you to focus on what we must now do and not let passion blind you to the cold facts of war. Bonds of brotherhood have been shattered and we are no longer the Sons of Horus, that name has no meaning for us now. We are once again the Luna Wolves, soldiers of the Emperor!'
A deafening cheer greeted his words as Loken continued, 'We are giving the enemy this position and will break through the gates to strike for the palace. Captain Torgaddon and I will take the assault units and lead the speartip.'
Within moments, the newly re-christened Luna Wolves were ready to move out, Torgaddon barking orders to put the assault squads up front. Loken gathered a body of warriors to him, forming a pocket of resistance in the shadow of the tomb-spire.
'Kill for the living and kill for the dead,' said Torgaddon as they prepared to move out.
'Kill for the living,' replied Loken as the speartip, numbering perhaps two thousand Luna Wolves, moved out across the tombscape of the Sirenhold towards the massive gates.
Loken turned back to the valley, seeing the shapes of Sons of Horus moving towards him. Larger, darker shapes loomed in the distance, grinding the battle-scarred shrines and statues to dust as they went: Rhino APCs, lumbering Land Raiders, and even the barrel-shaped silhouette of a dreadnought.
He felt he should be filled with sadness at the tragedy of fighting his brothers, but there was no sadness.
There was only hatred.
ARUKEN'S EYES WERE hollow and he was sweating. Cassar was shocked to see his normal, cocky arrogance replaced by fear. Despite that fear, Cassar knew that he could not fully trust Jonah Aruken.
'This has to end, Titus,' said Aruken. 'You don't want to be a martyr do you?'
'Martyr? That's a strange choice of words for someone who claims not to believe.'
A small smile appeared on Aruken's face. 'I'm not as stupid as you think, Titus. You're a good man and a damn good crewman. You believe in things, which is more than most people can manage So, I'd rather you didn't die.'
Cassar didn't respond to Aruken's forced levity. 'Please, I know you're just saying that for the princeps's benefit. I've no doubt he can hear every word.'
'Probably, yes, but he knows that as soon as he opens that door you'll blow his head off. So I guess you and I can just say what we damn well like.'
Cassar's grip on the gun relaxed. 'You're not in his pocket?'
'Hey, we've been through some scary shit recently, haven't we?' said Aruken. 'I know what you're going through.'
Cassar shook his head. 'No you don't, and I know what you're trying to do. I can't back down, I'm making a stand in the name of my Emperor. I won't just surrender.'
'Look, Titus, if you believe then you believe, but you don't have to prove that to anyone.'
'You think I'm doing this for show?' asked Cassar, aiming his gun at Aruken's throat.
Aruken held out his hands and walked carefully around the princeps's command chair to stand across the bridge from him.
'The Emperor isn't just a figurehead to cling to,' said Cassar. 'He is a god. He has a saint and miracles and I have seen them. And so have you! Think of all you have seen and you'll realize you have to help me, Jonah!'
'I saw some odd things, Titus, but-'
'Don't deny them,' interrupted Cassar. 'They happened. As sure as you and I are standing in this war machine. Jonah, there is an Emperor and He is watching over us. He judges us by the choices we make when those choices are hard. The Warmaster has betrayed us and if I stand back and let it happen then I am betraying my Emperor. There are principles that must be defended, Aruken. Don't you even see that much? If none of us take a stand, then the Warmaster will win and there won't even be the memory of this betrayal.'
Aruken shook his head in frustration. 'Cassar, if I could just make you see-'
'You're trying to tell me you haven't seen anything to believe in?' asked Cassar, turning away in disappointment. He looked through the scorched panes of the viewing bay at the assembling Death Guard.
'Titus, I haven't believed in anything for a long time,' said Aruken. 'For that I'm truly sorry, and I'm sorry for this too.'
Cassar turned to see that Jonah Aruken had drawn his pistol and had it aimed squarely at his chest.
'Jonah?' said Cassar. 'You would betray me? After all we have seen?'
'There's only one thing I want, Titus, and that's command of my own Titan. One day I want to be Princeps Aruken and that's not going to happen if I let you do this.'
Cassar said, 'To know that this whole galaxy is starved of belief and to think that you might be the only one who believes... and yet to still believe in spite of all that. That is faith, Aruken. I wish that you could understand that.'
'It's too late for that, Titus,' said Aruken. 'I'm sorry.'
Aruken's gun barked three times, filling the bridge with bursts of light and noise.
TARVITZ COULD SEE the battle from the shadow of an entrance arch leading into the Precentor's Palace. He had escaped the cyclone of carnage that Angron had slaughtered into life, to link up with his own warriors in the palace, but the sight of the World Eater's primarch was still a vivid red horror in his mind.
Tarvitz glanced back into the palace, its vaulted hallways strewn with the bodies of the dead palace guard darkening as late afternoon turned the shadows long and dim. Soon it would be night.
'Lucius,' voxed Tarvitz, static howling. 'Lucius, come in.'
'Saul, what do you see?'
'Gunships and drop-pods too, our colours, landing just north of here.'
'Has the primarch blessed us with his presence?'
'Looks like Eidolon,' said Tarvitz with relish. The vox was heavy with static and he knew that the Warmaster's forces would be attempting to jam their vox-channels without blocking their own.
'Listen, Lucius, Angron is going to break through here. The loyal World Eaters down there won't be able to hold him. He's going to head for the palace.'
'Then there will be a battle,' deadpanned Lucius. 'I hope Angron makes it a good fight. I think I might have found a decent fencing opponent at last.'
'You're welcome to him. We need to make this stand count. Start barricading the central dome. We'll move to fortifying the main domes and junctions if Angron gives us that long.'
'Since when did you become the leader here?' asked Lucius petulantly. 'I was the one who killed Vardus Praal.'
Tarvitz felt his anger rise at his friend's childishness at such a volatile time, but bit back his anger to say, 'Get in there and help man the barricades. We don't have long before we'll be in the thick of it.'
THE THUNDERHAWK SPED away from the Vengeful Spirit, gathering speed as Qruze kicked in the afterburners. Mersadie felt unutterably light-headed to be off the Warmaster's ship at last, but the cold realization that they had nowhere to go sobered her as she saw glinting specks of the fleet all around them.
'Now what?' asked Qruze. 'We're away, but where to next?'
'I told you we were not without friends, did I not, Iacton?' said Euphrati, sitting in the co-pilot's chair beside the Astartes warrior.
The warrior gave her a brief sideways look. 'Be that as it may, remembrancer. Friends do us little good if we die out here.'
'But what a death it would be,' said Keeler, with the trace of a ghostly smile.
Sindermann shared a worried glance with her, no doubt wondering if they had overreached themselves in trusting that Euphrati could deliver them to safety out in the dark of space. The old man looked tiny and feeble and she took his hand in hers.
Through the viewshield, Mersadie could see a field of glittering lights: starships belonging to the Sixty-Third Expedition, and every one of them hostile.
As if to contradict her, E |
a death it would be,' said Keeler, with the trace of a ghostly smile.
Sindermann shared a worried glance with her, no doubt wondering if they had overreached themselves in trusting that Euphrati could deliver them to safety out in the dark of space. The old man looked tiny and feeble and she took his hand in hers.
Through the viewshield, Mersadie could see a field of glittering lights: starships belonging to the Sixty-Third Expedition, and every one of them hostile.
As if to contradict her, Euphrati pointed upwards through the viewshield towards the belly of an ugly vessel they would pass beneath if they continued on their current course. The weak sun of Isstvan glinted from its unpainted gunmetal hull.
'Head towards that one,' commanded Euphrati and Mersadie was surprised to see Qruze turn the controls without a word of protest.
Mersadie didn't know a great deal about spacecraft but she knew that the cruiser would be bristling with turrets that could pick off the Thunderhawk as it shot past, and could maybe even deploy fighters.
'Why are we getting closer?' she asked hurriedly. 'Surely we want to head away?'
'Trust me, Sadie,' said Euphrati. This is the way it has to be.'
At least it will be quick, she thought, as the vessel grew larger in the viewshield.
'It's Death Guard,' said Qruze,
Mersadie bit her lip and glanced at Sindermann.
The old man looked calm and said, 'Quite the adventure, eh?'
Mersadie smiled in spite of herself.
'What are we going to do, Kyril?' asked Mersadie, tears springing from her eyes. 'What do we have left to us?'
'This is still our fight, Mersadie,' said Euphrati, turning from the viewshield. 'Sometimes that fight must be open warfare, sometimes it must be fought with words and ideas. We all have our parts to play.'
Mersadie let out a breath, unable and unwilling to believe that there were allies in the cruiser looming in front of them. 'We are not alone,' smiled Euphrati. 'But this fight... it feels a lot bigger than me.'
'You are wrong. Each of us has as much right to have their say in the fate of the galaxy as the Warmaster. Believing that is how we will defeat him.'
Mersadie nodded and watched the cruiser above them drawing ever nearer, its long, dark shape edged in starlight and its engines wreathed in clouds of crystalline gasses.
'Thunderhawk gunship, identify yourself,' said a gruff, gravel-laden voice crackling from the vox-caster.
'Be truthful,' warned Euphrati. 'All depends on it.'
Qruze nodded and said, 'My name is Iacton Qruze, formerly of the Sons of Horus.'
'Formerly?' came the reply.
'Yes, formerly,' said Qruze.
'Explain yourself.'
'I am no longer part of the Legion,' said Qruze, and Mersadie could hear the pain it caused him to give voice to these words. 'I can no longer be party to what the Warmaster is doing.'
After a long pause, the voice returned. 'Then you are welcome on my ship, Iacton Qruze.'
'And who are you?' asked Qruze. 'I am Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Eisenstein.'
PART THREE
BROTHERS
FOURTEEN
Until it's over
Charmoisan
Betrayal
'I'VE LOST COUNT of the days,' said Loken, crouching by one of the makeshift battlements that looked over the smouldering ruins of the Choral City.
'I don't think Isstvan III has days and nights any more,' replied Saul Tarvitz.
Loken looked into the steel grey sky, a mantle of cloud kicked up by the catastrophic climate change forced on Isstvan III by the sudden extinction of almost all life on its surface. A thin drizzle of ash rained, the remains of the firestorm swept up by dry, dead winds a continent away.
'They're massing for another attack,' said Tarvitz, indicating the tangle of twisted, ash-wreathed rubble that had once been a vast mass of tenement blocks to the east of the palace.
Loken followed his gaze. He could just glimpse a flash of dirty white armour.
'World Eaters.'
'Who else?'
'I don't know if Angron even knows another way to fight.'
Tarvitz shrugged. 'He probably does. He just likes his way better.'
Tarvitz and Loken had first met on Murder, where the Sons of Horus had fought alongside the Emperor's Children against hideous megarachnid aliens. Tarvitz had been a fine warrior, devoid of the grandstanding of his Legion that had so antagonised Torgaddon.
Loken barely remembered the journey back through the Sirenhold, scrambling through shattered tombs and burning ruins. He remembered fighting through men he had once called brother towards the great gates of the Sirenhold, and he had not stopped until he had his first proper sight of the Precentor's Palace and its magnificent rose-granite petals.
'They'll hit within the hour,' said Tarvitz. 'I'll move men over to the defences.'
'It could be a feint,' said Loken, vividly remembering the first days of the battle for the palace. 'Angron hits one side, Eidolon counter-attacks.'
His first sight of Tarvitz's warriors in battle had resembled a great game with the Emperor's Children as pieces masterfully arranged in feints and counter-charges. A lesser man than Saul Tarvitz would have allowed his force to be picked apart by them, but the captain of the Emperor's Children had somehow managed to weather three days of non-stop attacks.
'We'll be ready for it,' said Tarvitz, looking down into the depths of the palace.
Loken and Tarvitz had climbed into the structure of a partially collapsed dome, one of the many sections of the Precentor's Palace that had been ruined during the firestorm and fighting.
Sheared sections of granite petals formed the cover behind which Loken and Tarvitz were sheltering, while in the rubble-choked dome below, hundreds of the survivors were manning the defences. Luna Wolves and Emperor's Children manned barricades made of priceless sculptures and other artworks that had filled the chambers beneath the dome.
Now these monumental sculptures of past rulers lay on their sides with Astartes crouched behind them.
'How much longer do you think we can hold?' asked Loken.
'We'll stay until it's over,' said Tarvitz. 'You said so yourself, every second we survive, the chance grows that the Emperor hears of this and sends the other Legions to bring Horus to justice.'
'If Garro makes it,' said Loken. 'He could be dead already, or lost in the warp.'
'Perhaps, but I have to hope that Nathaniel made it out,' said Tarvitz. 'Our job is to hold them off for as long as we can.'
'That's what worries me. This probably all started when Angron slipped the leash, but the Warmaster could have just pulled his Legions out and bombed this city into dust. He would have lost some of them, but even so... this planet should have been dead a long time ago.'
Tarvitz smiled. 'Four primarchs, Garviel. That's your answer. Four warriors not given to backing down. Who would be the first to leave? Angron? Mortarion? If Eidolon's leading the Emperor's Children then he's got a lot to prove alongside the primarchs, and I have never known Horus show weakness, not when his brother primarchs might see it.'
'No,' agreed Loken. 'The Warmaster does not back down from a battle once he's committed.'
'Then they'll have to kill us all,' said Tarvitz.
'Yes, they will,' said Loken grimly.
The vox-beads in both their helmets chimed and Torgaddon's voice sounded.
'Garvi, Saul!' said Torgaddon. 'I've got reports that the World Eaters are massing. We can hear them chanting, so they'll be coming soon. I've reinforced the eastern barricades, but we need every man down here.'
'I'll pull my men back from the gallery dome,' voxed Tarvitz. 'I'll send Garviel to join you.'
'Where are you going?' asked Loken.
'I'm going to make sure the west and north are still covered and to get some guns on the chapel too,' said Tarvitz, pointing through the ruins of the dome to the strange organic shape of the Warsingers' Chapel adjoining the palace complex.
The survivors had instinctively avoided the chapel and few of them had even seen inside it. Its very walls were redolent of the corruption that had consumed the soul of the Choral City.
'I'll take the chapel and Lucius can take the ground level,' continued Tarvitz, turning back to Loken. 'I swear that sometimes I think Lucius is actually enjoying this.'
'A little too much, if you ask me,' replied Loken. 'You need to keep an eye on him.'
A familiar dull explosion sounded and a tower of rubble and smoke burst from the Choral City's tortured cityscape to the north of the palace.
'Amazing,' said Tarvitz, 'that there are any Death Guard left alive over there.'
'Death Guard are tough to kill,' replied Loken, heading for the makeshift ladder that led down to the remains of the gallery dome.
Despite his words, he knew that it really was amazing. Mortarion, never one to do things with finesse, had simply landed one of his fleet's largest orbital landers on the edge of the western trenches and saturated the defences with turret fire while his Death Guard deployed.
That had been the last anyone had heard of the Death Guard in the Choral City.
Though from the haphazardly aimed artillery shells that landed daily in the traitors' camps, it was clear that some loyal Death Guard still resisted Mortarion's efforts to exterminate them.
'I only hope we live as long,' said Tarvitz. 'We're running low on supplies and ammunition. Soon we'll start running low on Astartes.'
'As long as one is alive, captain, we'll fight,' promised Loken. 'Horus picked some unfortunate enemies in you and me. We'll make him regret ever taking us on.'
'Then we'll speak again after Angron's been sent scurrying,' said Tarvitz.
'Until then.'
Loken dropped down into the dome, leaving Tarvitz alone for a moment to look across the blasted city. How long had it been since he had been surrounded by anything other than the nightmarish place the Choral City had become? Two months? Three?
Ashen skies and smoldering ruins surrounded the palace for as far as the eye could see in all directions, the city resembling the kind of hell the Isstvanians thems |
'Then we'll speak again after Angron's been sent scurrying,' said Tarvitz.
'Until then.'
Loken dropped down into the dome, leaving Tarvitz alone for a moment to look across the blasted city. How long had it been since he had been surrounded by anything other than the nightmarish place the Choral City had become? Two months? Three?
Ashen skies and smoldering ruins surrounded the palace for as far as the eye could see in all directions, the city resembling the kind of hell the Isstvanians themselves might once have believed in.
Tarvitz shook the thought from his mind.
'There are no hells, no gods, no eternal rewards or punishments,' he told himself.
LUCIUS COULD HEAR the killing. He could read the sound of it as though it were written down before him like sheet music. He knew the difference between the war-cries of a World Eater and those of a Son of Horus, and the variance between the tonal quality of a volley of bolter fire launched to support an attack or to defend an obstacle.
The chapel Saul had tasked him with defending was a strange place to be the site of the Great Crusade's last stand. Not so long ago it had been the nerve centre of an enemy regime, but now its makeshift defences were the only thing holding off the far superior traitor forces.
'Sounds like a nasty one,' said Brother Solathen of Squad Nasicae, hunched down by the sill of the chapel window. 'They might break through.'
'Our friend Loken can handle them,' sneered Lucius. 'Angron wants to get some more kills. That's all he wants. Listen? Can you hear that?'
Solathen cocked his head as he listened. Astartes hearing, like most of their senses, was finely honed, but Solathen didn't seem to recognize Lucius's point. 'Hear what, captain?'
'Chainaxes. But they're not cutting into ceramite or other chainblades; they're cutting into stone and steel. The World Eaters can't get to grips with the Sons of Horus over there, so they're trying to hack through the barricades.'
Solathen nodded and said, 'Captain Tarvitz knows what he's doing. The World Eaters only know one way to fight. We can use that to our advantage.'
Lucius frowned at Solathen's praise of Saul Tarvitz, aggrieved that his own contributions to the defences appeared to have been overlooked. Hadn't he killed Vardus Praal? Hadn't he managed to get his men to safety when the virus bombs and the firestorm had hit?
He turned his bitter expression away and stared through the chapel window across the plaza still stained dark with charred ruins. Amazingly the chapel window was still intact, although its panes had been distorted by the heat of the firestorm, bulging and discoloured with vein-like streaks that reminded Lucius of an enormous insectoid eye.
The chapel itself was more bizarre inside than out, constructed from curved blocks of green stone in looming biological shapes that looked as though a cloud of noxious-looking fumes had suddenly petrified as it billowed upwards. The altar was a great spreading membrane of paler purple stone, like a complex internal organ opened up and pinned for study against the far wall.
'The World Eaters aren't the ones you should be worried about, brother,' continued Lucius idly. 'It's us.'
'Us, captain?'
'The Emperor's Children,' said Lucius. 'You know how our Legion fights. They're the dangerous ones out there.'
Most of the surviving loyalist Emperor's Children were holding the chapel. Tarvitz had taken a force to cover the nearest gate, but several squads were arrayed among the odd organ-like protrusions on the floor below. Squad Nasicae had only four members left, including Lucius himself, and they headed the assault element of the survivors' force alone with Squads Quemondil and Raetherin.
Tarvitz had deployed Sergeant Kaitheron on the roof of the chapel with his support squad as well as the majority of the Emperor's Children's remaining heavy weapons. Astartes from the tactical squads were at the chapel windows or in cover further inside. The rest of Lucius's troops were stationed in cover outside the chapel, among the barricades of fallen stone slabs they had set up in the early days of the siege.
Two thousand Space Marines, enough for an entire battle zone of the Great Crusade, were defending a single approach to the palace with the Warsingers' Chapel as the lynchpin of their line.
Movement caught Lucius's eye and he peered through the distorted window into the blackened buildings across from him. There! A glimpse of gold.
He smiled, knowing full well how the Emperor's Children fought.
'Contact!' he announced to the rest of his force. 'Third block west, second floor.'
'On it,' replied Sergeant Kaitheron, a no-nonsense weapons officer who treated war as a mathematical problem to be solved with angles and weight of fire. Lucius heard the squads moving on the roof, training weapons on the area he had indicated.
'West front, make ready!' ordered Lucius. Several of the tactical squads hurried into firing positions along Lucius's side of the chapel.
The tension was delicious, and Lucius felt a surge of ecstatic sensation crawling along his veins as he heard the song of death building in his blood. A raw, toe-to-toe conflict meant opportunities to exercise perfection in war, but to make it truly memorable it needed these moments of feverish anticipation when the full weight of potential death and glory surged around his body.
'Got them,' called Kaitheron from the chapel roof. 'Emperor's Children. Major force over several floors. Armour too. Land Raiders and Predators. Lascannon, to the fore! Heavy bolters, cover the open ground mid-range and overlap!'
'Eidolon,' said Lucius.
Lucius could see them now, hundreds of Astartes in the purple and gold of the Legion he idolised, gathering in the dead eyes of ruined structures.
'They'll get the support into position first,' said Lucius. 'Then they'll use the Land Raiders to bring the troops in. Mid- to close-range the infantry will move in. Hold your fire until then.'
Tracks rumbled as the Land Raiders, resplendent with gilded eagle's wings and frescoes of war on their armour-plated sides, ground through the shattered ruins of the Choral City. Each was full of Emperor's Children, the galaxy's elite, primed by Eidolon and Fulgrim to treat the men they had once called brothers as foes worthy only of extermination.
To Eidolon, the survivors of the first wave were ignorant and mindless, deserving only death, but they had reckoned without Lucius. He licked his lips at the thought of once again facing the warriors of his Legion; warriors worthy of the name. Enemies he could respect. Or earn the respect of...
Lucius could practically see the enemy squads deploying with such rapid confidence that they looked more like players in a complex parade-ground move than soldiers at war.
He could taste the moment when the battle would really begin.
He wanted it right there and then, but he also knew how much more delicious the taste of battle was when the timing was perfect.
Windows shattered as fire from the tanks ripped through the chapel, kicking up shards of marble and glass.
'Hold!' ordered Lucius. Despite everything, his Astartes were still Emperor's Children and they would not break ranks like undisciplined World Eaters.
He risked a glance through the splintered glass to see the Land Raiders churning up the marble of the plaza. Predator battle tanks followed them, acting as mobile gun platforms that blew great shuddering chunks from the chapel's battlements. Lascannon fire streaked back and forth, Kaitheron's men attempting to cripple the advancing vehicles and the Land Raiders' sponson-mounted weapons trying to pick off the Astartes on the roof.
A Predator tank slewed to a halt as its track was blown off and another vehicle burst into multicoloured flames. Purple-armoured bodies tumbled past the window; corpses served as an appetizer to the great feast of death.
Lucius drew his sword, feeling the music build inside him until he felt he could no longer contain it. The familiar hum of his sword's energy field became part of the rhythm and he felt himself slipping into the duelist's dance, the weaving stream of savagery he had perfected over centuries of killing. How many men were in the assault? Certainly a large chunk of Eidolon's command.
Lucius had fewer men, but this battle was all about winning glory and spectacle.
A tank round shot through a window and burst against the ceiling, showering them in fragments and smoke.
Lucius saw streaks of bolter fire from the palace entrance - Tarvitz was drawing Eidolon in and Eidolon had no choice but to dance to his tune. He heard a musical clang and saw the assault ramps of the Land Raiders slam open and Lucius glimpsed the close-packed armoured bodies within.
'Go!' he yelled and the jump packs of the assault units opened up behind him, catapulting the warriors into battle. Lucius followed in their wake, vaulting through the chapel window. Squad Nasicae came after him and the rest of his warriors followed in turn.
Battle: the dance of war. Lucius knew that against an enemy like Eidolon, there would be no time for anything but the most intense applications of his martial perfection. His consciousness shifted and everything was snapped into wondrous focus, every colour becoming bright and dazzling and every sound blaring and discordant along his nerves.
The duelist's dance took him into the enemy as battle erupted in all its perfectly marshaled chaos around him. Heavy fire streaked down from the roof and Land Raiders twisted on their tracks to bring their guns to bear on the Emperor's Children charging from the chapel.
The Space Marines outside the chapel charged at the same instant, and Eidolon's force was attacked from two sides at once.
Lucius ducked blades and bolts, his sword lashing like a serpent's tongue. Eidolon's force reeled. Squad Quelmondil battled ferociously with the enemy warriors emerging from the nearest Land Raider. He da |
round him. Heavy fire streaked down from the roof and Land Raiders twisted on their tracks to bring their guns to bear on the Emperor's Children charging from the chapel.
The Space Marines outside the chapel charged at the same instant, and Eidolon's force was attacked from two sides at once.
Lucius ducked blades and bolts, his sword lashing like a serpent's tongue. Eidolon's force reeled. Squad Quelmondil battled ferociously with the enemy warriors emerging from the nearest Land Raider. He danced past them, savage joy kicking in his heart and he rolled under a spray of bolter fire to come up and stab his blade through the abdomen of an enemy sergeant.
Death was an end in itself, expressing Lucius's superiority through the lives he took, but he had a higher purpose. He knew what he had to do, and his strangely distorted senses sought out the glint of gold or the flutter of a banner, anything indicating the presence of one of Fulgrim's chosen.
Then he saw it; armour trimmed in black instead of gold, a helmet worked into a stern, grimacing skull: Chaplain Charmosian.
The black-armoured warrior stood proud of the top hatch of a Land Raider, directing the battle with sharp chops of his eagle-winged crozius. Lucius grinned manically, setting off through the battle to face Charmosian and slay him in a fight worthy of the Legion's epics.
'Charmosian!' he yelled, his voice sounding like the most vibrant music imaginable. 'Keeper of the Will! I am Lucius, once your brother, now your nemesis!'
Charmosian turned his skull helmet towards Lucius and said, 'I know who you are!'
The chaplain clambered from the hatch and stood on top of the Land Raider, daring Lucius to approach him. Charmosian was a battlefield leader and to fulfill that role he needed the respect of the Legion, respect that could only be earned fighting from the front.
He would be a worthy foe, but that wasn't why Lucius had sought him out.
Lucius leapt onto the Land Raider's track mounting and charged up its glacis until he was face to face with Charmosian. Bolter fire flew in all directions, but it was irrelevant.
This was the only battle in Lucius's mind.
'We taught you too much pride,' said Charmosian, bringing his lethal crozius around in a strike designed to crush Lucius's chest. He brought his blade up to deflect the crozius, and the dance entered a new and urgent phase. Charmosian was good, one of the Legion's best, but Lucius had spent many years training for a fight such as this.
The chaplain's crozius was too heavy to block full-on, so the swordsman let it slide from his blade as Charmosian swung at him time and time again, frustrating him into putting more strength into his blows. A little longer. A few more moments, and Lucius would have his chance.
He loved the way Charmosian hated him, feeling it as something bright and refreshing.
Lucius could read the pattern of Charmosian's attacks and laughed as he saw the clumsy intent written over every blow. Charmosian wanted to kill Lucius with one almighty stroke, but his crozius rose too far, held too long inert as the chaplain gathered his strength.
Lucius lunged, his sword sweeping out in a high cut that slashed through the chaplain's upraised arms. The crozius tumbled to the ground and Charmosian roared in pain as his arms from the elbows down fell with it.
The battle raged around the scene and Lucius let the noise and spectacle of it fill his over-stimulated senses. The battle was around him, and his victory was all that mattered.
'You know who I am,' said Lucius. 'Your last thought is of defeat.'
Charmosian tried to speak but before the words were out Lucius spun his sword in a wide arc and Charmosian's head was sliced neatly from his shoulders.
Crimson sprayed across the gold of the Land Raider's hull. Lucius caught the head as it spun through the air and held it high so the whole battlefield could see it.
Around him, thousands of the Emperor's Children fought to the death as Eidolon's force, hit from two sides, reeled against the palace defences and fell back. Tarvitz led the counter-strike and Eidolon's attack was melting away.
He laughed as he saw Eidolon's command tank, a Land Raider festooned with victory banners, rise up over a knot of rubble as it retreated from the fighting.
The loyalists had won this battle, but Lucius found that he didn't care.
He had won his own battle, and pulling Charmosian's head from the skull faced helmet and throwing it aside, he knew he had what he needed to ensure that the song of death kept playing for him.
THE WARSINGERS' CHAPEL was quiet. Hundreds of new bodies lay around it, purple and gold armour scorched and split, runnels of blood gathering between the stained marble tiles. In some places they lay alongside the blackened armour of the World Eaters who had died in the initial assaults on the Choral City.
The palace entrance was heavily barricaded and in the closest dome of the palace, the few apothecaries in the loyalist force were patching up their wounded.
Tarvitz saw Lucius cleaning his sword, alternating between wiping the blade and using its tip to carve new scars on his face. A skull-faced helmet sat beside him.
'Is that really necessary?' asked Tarvitz.
Lucius looked up and said, 'I want to remember killing Charmosian.'
Tarvitz knew he should discipline the swordsman, reprimand him for practices that might be considered barbaric and tribal, but here, amid this betrayal and death, such concerns seemed ridiculously petty.
He squatted on the ground next to Lucius, his limbs aching and his armour scarred and dented from the latest battle at the entrance to the palace.
'Fair enough,' he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the enemy. 'I saw you kill him. It was a fine strike.'
'Fine?' said Lucius. 'It was better than fine. It was art. You never were much for finesse, Saul, so I'm not surprised you didn't appreciate it.'
Lucius smiled as he spoke, but Tarvitz saw a very real flash of annoyance cross the swordsman's features, a glimpse of hurt pride that he did not like the look of.
'Any more movement?' he asked, changing the subject.
'No,' said Lucius. 'Eidolon won't come back before he's regrouped.'
'Keep watching,' ordered Tarvitz. 'Eidolon could catch us unawares while our guard's down.'
'He won't breach us,' promised Lucius, 'not while I'm here.'
'He doesn't have to,' said Tarvitz, wanting to make sure Lucius understood the reality of their position. 'Every time he attacks, we lose more warriors. If he strikes fast and pulls out, we'll be whittled down until we can't hold everywhere at once. The ambush from the temple cost him more than he'd like, but he still took too many of us down.'
'We saw him off though,' said Lucius.
'Yes,' agreed Tarvitz, 'but it was a close run thing, so I'll send a squad to help keep the watch.'
'So you don't trust me to keep watch now, is that it?'
Tarvitz was surprised at the venom in Lucius's voice and said, 'No, that's not it at all. All I want is to make sure that you have enough warriors here to fend off another attack. Anyway, I need to attend to the western defences.'
'Yes, off you go and lead the big fight, you're the hero,' snapped Lucius.
'We will win this,' said Tarvitz, placing his hand on the swordsman's shoulder.
'Yes,' said Lucius, 'we will. One way or another.'
LUCIUS WATCHED TARVITZ go, feeling his anger at his assumption of command. Lucius had been the one earmarked for promotion and greatness, not Tarvitz. How could his own glorious accomplishments have been overshadowed by the plodding leadership of Saul Tarvitz? All the glories that he had earned in the crucible of combat were forgotten and he felt his bitterness rise up in a choking wave in his gullet.
He had felt a moment's guilt as he had formed his plan, but remembering Tarvitz's patronizing condescension, he felt that guilt vanish like snow in the sunshine.
The temple was quiet and Lucius checked to make sure that he was alone, moving to sit on one of the outcroppings of smooth grey-green stone and lifting Charmosian's helmet.
He peered into the bloodstained helmet until he saw the glint of silver, and then reached in and pulled out the small metallic scrap that was Charmosian's helmet communicator.
Once again he checked to see that he was alone before speaking into it.
'Commander Eidolon?' he said, his frustration growing as he received no answer.
'Eidolon, this is Lucius,' he said. 'Charmosian is dead.'
There was a brief crackle of static, and then, 'Lucius.'
He smiled as he recognized Eidolon's voice. As one of the senior officers among the Emperor's Children, Charmosian had been in direct contact with Eidolon, and, as Lucius had hoped, the channel had still been open when the chaplain had died.
'Commander!' said Lucius, his voice full amusement. 'It is good to hear your voice.'
'I have no interest in listening to your taunts, Lucius,' snarled Eidolon. 'You must know we will kill you all eventually.'
'Indeed you will,' agreed Lucius, 'but it will take a very long time. A great many Emperor's Children will die before the palace falls. Sons of Horus and World Eaters, too. And Terra knows how many of Mortarion's Death Guard have died already in the trenches. You will suffer for this, Eidolon. The Warmaster's whole force will suffer. By the time the other Legions get here he may have lost too many on Isstvan III to win through.'
'Keep telling yourself that, Lucius, if it makes it easier.'
'No, commander,' he said. 'You misunderstand me. I am saying that I wish to make a deal with you.'
'A deal?' asked Eidolon. 'What kind of deal?'
Lucius's scars tightened as he smiled. 'I will give you Tarvitz and the Precentor's Palace.'
FIFTEEN
No shortage of wonders
Old friends
Perfect failure
THE STRATEGIUM WAS dimly lit, the only illumination coming from the flickering pict screens gathered like supplicants around the Warmaster's throne and a handful of torches that burned low with a |
'No, commander,' he said. 'You misunderstand me. I am saying that I wish to make a deal with you.'
'A deal?' asked Eidolon. 'What kind of deal?'
Lucius's scars tightened as he smiled. 'I will give you Tarvitz and the Precentor's Palace.'
FIFTEEN
No shortage of wonders
Old friends
Perfect failure
THE STRATEGIUM WAS dimly lit, the only illumination coming from the flickering pict screens gathered like supplicants around the Warmaster's throne and a handful of torches that burned low with a fragrant aroma of sandalwood. The back wall of the strategium had been removed during the fighting on Isstvan III, revealing a fully fashioned temple adjoining the Vengeful Spirit's bridge.
The Warmaster sat alone. None dared disturb his bitter reveries as he sat brooding on the conflict raging below. What should have been a massacre had turned into a war - a war he could ill afford the time to wage.
Despite his brave words to his brother primarchs, the battle on Isstvan III worried him. Not for any fear that his warriors would lose, but for the fact that they were engaged at all. The virus bombing should have killed every one of those he believed would not support him in his campaign to topple the Emperor from the Golden Throne of Terra.
Instead, the first cracks had appeared in what should have been a faultless plan.
Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children had taken a warning to the surface...
And the Eisenstein...
He remembered Maloghurst's fear as he had come to tell him of the debacle with the remembrancers, the fear that the Warmaster's wrath would prove his undoing.
Maloghurst had limped towards the throne with his hooded head cast down.
'What is it Maloghurst?' Horus had demanded.
'They are gone,' said Maloghurst. 'Sindermann, Oliton and Keeler.'
'What do you. mean?'
'They are not amongst the dead in the Audience Chamber,' explained Maloghurst. 'I checked every corpse myself.'
'You say they are gone?' asked the Warmaster at last. 'That implies you know where they have gone. Is that the case?'
'I believe so, my lord,' nodded Maloghurst. 'It appears they boarded a Thunderhawk and flew to the Eisenstein.'
'They stole a Thunderhawk,' repeated Horus. 'We are going to have to review our security procedures regarding these new craft. First Saul Tarvitz and now these remembrancers; it seems anyone can steal one of our ships with impunity.'
'They did not steal it on their own,' explained Maloghurst. 'They had help.'
'Help? From whom?'
'I believe it was Iacton Qruze. There was a struggle and Maggard was killed.'
'Iacton Qruze?' laughed Horus mirthlessly. 'We have seen no shortage of wonders, but perhaps this is the greatest of them. The Half-heard growing a conscience.'
'I have failed in this, Warmaster.'
'It is not a question of failure, Maloghurst! Mistakes like this should never occur. More and more of my efforts are distracted from this battle. Tell me, where is the Eisenstein now?'
'It attempted to break through our blockade to reach the system jump point.'
'You say "attempted",' noted Horus. 'It did not succeed?'
Maloghurst paused before answering. 'Several of our ships intercepted the Eisenstein and heavily damaged it.'
'But they did not destroy it?'
'No, my lord, before they could do so, the Eisenstein's commander made an emergency jump into the warp, but the ship was so badly damaged that we do not believe it could survive such a translation.'
'If it does, then the whole timetable of my designs will be disrupted.'
'The warp is dark, Warmaster. It is unlikely that-'
'Do not be so sure of yourself, Maloghurst,' warned Horus. 'The Isstvan V phase is critical to our success and if the Eisenstein carries word of our plans to Terra, then all may be lost.'
'Perhaps, Warmaster, if we were to withdraw from the Choral City and blockade the planet, we could ensure that the Isstvan V phase proceeds as planned.'
'I am the Warmaster and I do not back down from a battle!' shouted Horus. 'There are goals to be won in the Choral City that you cannot comprehend.'
Horus was shaken from his memories by the chiming of the communications array fitted into the arm of his throne. 'This is the Warmaster.'
A holomat installed beneath the floor projected a large square plane on which swirled an image, high above the Warmaster's temple. The image resolved into the face of Lord Commander Eidolon, evidently inside his command Land Raider. The sound of distant explosions washed through the static.
'Warmaster,' said Eidolon. 'I bring news that I feel you should hear.'
'Tell me,' said Horus, 'and it had better be good news.'
'Oh, it is, my lord,' said Eidolon. 'Well, don't drag this out, Eidolon,' warned Horus. 'Tell me!'
'We have an ally inside the palace.'
'An ally? Who?'
'Lucius.'
THE AFTERMATH OF a battle was the worst part.
An Astartes warrior was used to the tension of waiting for an attack to come, and even the din and pain of battle itself. But Loken never wished for a time without war more than when he saw what was left after the battle had finished. He didn't experience fear or despair in the manner of a mortal man, but he felt sorrow and guilt as they did.
Angron's latest attack had been one of the fiercest yet, the primarch himself leading it, charging through the ruins of the palace dome towards Loken's defences. Thousands of blood covered World Eaters had followed him and many of those warriors still lay where they had fallen.
Once this place had been part of the palace, a handsome garden with summer-houses, ornamental lakes and a roof that opened up to the sun. Now it was a rubble-strewn ruin, its roof collapsed and only an incongruous decorated post or the splintered remains of an ornamental bridge remaining of its finery.
The bodies of the World Eaters were concentrated on the forward barricade, a line of heaped rubble and metal spikes constructed by the Luna Wolves. Angron had attacked it in force and Torgaddon had relinquished it, letting the World Eaters die for it before his Astartes fell back to the defences at the entrance of the palace's central dome. The ruse had worked and the World Eaters had been strung out as they charged at Loken's position. Many had died to the guns Tarvitz had stationed above the barricades, and by the time Loken's sword had left its sheath it was only momentum that kept the World Eaters fighting - victory was beyond them.
Luna Wolves were mixed in with the World Eaters' dead, warriors Loken had known for years. Although the sounds of battle had faded, Loken fancied he could still hear echoes of the fighting, chainblades ripping through armour and volleys of bolter rounds splitting the air.
'It was a close run thing, Garviel,' said a voice from behind Loken, 'but we did it.'
Loken glanced round to see Saul Tarvitz emerging from the central dome. Loken smiled as he saw his friend and battle-brother, a man who had come a long way from the line officer he had been back on Murder to command the survivors of Horus's treachery.
'Angron will be back,' said Loken.
'Their ruse failed, though,' said Tarvitz.
'They don't need to break in, Saul,' said Loken. 'Horus will whittle us down until there's no one left. Then Eidolon and Angron can just roll over us.'
'Not forgetting the Warmaster's Sons of Horus,' said Tarvitz.
Loken shrugged. 'There's no need for them to get involved yet. Eidolon wants the glory and the World Eaters are hungry for blood. The Warmaster will happily let the other Legions wear us down before they strike.'
'That's changed,' said Tarvitz.
'What do you mean?'
'I've just had word from Lucius,' explained Tarvitz. 'He tells me that his communications specialists have broken the Sons of Horus communiques. Some old friends of yours are coming down from the Vengeful Spirit to lead the Legion.'
Loken turned from the battlefield, suddenly interested. 'Who?'
'Ezekyle Abaddon and Horus Aximand,' said Tarvitz. 'Apparently they are to bring the Warmaster's own wrath down upon the city. The Sons of Horus will be playing their hand soon enough, I think.'
Abaddon and Aximand, the arch-traitors, men Loken had admired for so long and the heart of the Mournival. Both warriors stood at Horus's right hand and possibilities flashed through Loken's mind. Deprived of the last of its Mournival, a crucial part of the Legion would die and it would start unraveling without such inspirational figureheads. 'Saul, are you certain?' asked Loken urgently. 'As sure as I can be, but Lucius seemed pretty excited by the news.'
'Did this intercept say where they would be landing?' demanded Loken.
'It did,' smiled Lucius. 'The Mackaran Basilica, just beyond the palace. It's a big temple with a spire in the shape of a trident.'
'I have to find Tarik.'
'He is with Nero Vipus, helping Vaddon with the wounded.'
'Thank you for bringing me this news, Saul,' said Loken with a cruel smile. 'This changes everything.'
LUCIUS PEERED PAST the bullet-riddled pillar, scanning through the darkness of one of the many battlefields scattered throughout the ruins of the palace. Bodies, bolters and chainaxes lay on the shattered tiles where they had been dropped and many of the bodies were still locked in their last, fatal combat.
It had not been difficult for Lucius to slip out of the palace. The biggest danger had been the snipers of the recon squads the Warmaster's forces had deployed among the ruins. Lucius had spied movement in the ruined buildings several times and had taken cover in shell craters or behind heaps of corpses.
Squirming through the filth and darkness like an animal - it had been humiliating, though the sights, sounds and smells of these battlefields still filled his senses in an arousing way. He stepped warily into the courtyard. The bodies that lay everywhere had been butchered, hacked apart with chainblades or battered to death with fists.
It was an ugly spectacle, yet he relished the image of how intense their deaths must have been.
'No artistry,' he said |
hell craters or behind heaps of corpses.
Squirming through the filth and darkness like an animal - it had been humiliating, though the sights, sounds and smells of these battlefields still filled his senses in an arousing way. He stepped warily into the courtyard. The bodies that lay everywhere had been butchered, hacked apart with chainblades or battered to death with fists.
It was an ugly spectacle, yet he relished the image of how intense their deaths must have been.
'No artistry,' he said to himself as a gold and purple armoured figure detached from the shadows. A score of warriors followed him and Lucius smiled as he recognised Lord Commander Eidolon.
'Lord commander,' said Lucius, 'it is a pleasure to stand before you once more.'
'Damn your blandishments!' spat Eidolon. 'You are a traitor twice over.'
'That's as maybe,' said Lucius, slouching on a fallen pillar of black marble, 'but I am here to give you what you want.'
'Ha!' scoffed Eidolon. 'What can you give us, traitor?'
'Victory,' said Lucius.
'Victory?' laughed Eidolon. 'You think we need your help to give us that? We have you in a vice! One by one, death by death, victory will be ours!'
'And how many warriors will you lose to achieve it?' retorted Lucius. 'How many of Fulgrim's chosen are you willing to throw into a battle that should never have been fought at all? You can end this right now, right here, and keep all your Astartes alive for the real battle! When the Emperor sends his reply to Horus's treachery you will need every single one of your battle-brothers and you know it.'
'And what would be your price for this invaluable help?' asked Eidolon.
'Simple,' said Lucius. 'I want to rejoin the Legion.'
Eidolon laughed in his face and Lucius felt the song of death surge painfully through his body, but he forced its killing music back down inside him.
'Are you serious, Lucius?' demanded Eidolon. 'What makes you think we want you back?'
'You need someone like me, Eidolon. I want to be part of a Legion that respects my skills and ambition. I am not content to stay a captain for the rest of my life like that wretch Tarvitz. I will be at Fulgrim's side where I belong.'
'Tarvitz,' spat Eidolon. 'Does he still live?'
'He lives,' nodded Lucius, 'although I will gladly kill him for you. The glory of this battle should be mine, yet he lords over us all as if he is one of the chosen.'
Lucius felt his bitterness rise and fought to maintain his composure. 'He was once happy to trudge alongside his warriors and leave better men to the glory, but he has chosen this battle to discover his ambition. It's thanks to him that I'm down here at all.'
'You ask for a great deal of trust, Lucius,' said Eidolon.
'I do, but think what I can give you: the palace, Tarvitz.'
'We will have these things anyway.'
'We are a proud Legion, lord commander, but we never send our brothers to their deaths to prove a point.'
'We follow the orders of the Warmaster in all things,' replied Eidolon guardedly.
'Indeed,' noted Lucius, 'but what if I said I can give you a victory so sudden it will be yours and yours alone. The World Eaters and the Sons of Horus will only flounder in your wake.'
Lucius could see he had caught Eidolon's interest and suppressed a smile. Now all he had to was reel him in.
'Speak,' commanded Eidolon.
'I'M COMING WITH you, Garvi,' said Nero Vipus, walking into the only dome of the palace not to be ruined by the siege. It had once been an auditorium with a stage and rows of gilded seats, where the music of creation had once played to the Choral City's elite, but now it was moldering and dark.
Loken rose from his battle meditation, seeing Vipus standing before him and said, 'I knew you would wish to come, but this is something Tarik and I have to do alone.'
'Alone?' said Vipus. 'That's madness. Ezekyle and Little Horus are the best soldiers the Legion has ever had. You can't go up against them alone.'
Loken placed his hand on his friend's shoulder and said, 'The palace will fall soon enough with or without Tarik and me. Saul Tarvitz has done unimaginable things in keeping us all alive as long as he has, but ultimately the palace will fall.'
'Then what's the point of throwing your life away hunting down Ezekyle and Little Horus?' demanded Vipus.
'We only have one goal on Isstvan III, Nero, and that's to hurt the Warmaster. If we can kill the last of the Mournival then the Warmaster's plans suffer. Nothing else matters.'
'You said we were supposed to be holding the traitors here while the Emperor sent the other Legions to save us. Is that not true any more? Are we on our own?'
Loken shook his head and retrieved his sword from where he had propped it against the wall. 'I don't know, Nero. Maybe the Emperor has sent the Legions to rescue us, maybe he hasn't, but we have to assume that we're on our own. I'm not going to fight with nothing but blind hope to keep me going. I'm going to make a stand.'
'And that's what I want to do,' said Vipus, 'at my friend's side.'
'No, you need to stay here,' said Loken. 'Your stand must be made here. Every minute you keep the traitors here is another minute for the Emperor to bring the Warmaster to justice. This killing is Mournival business, Nero. Do you understand?'
'Frankly, no,' said Nero, 'but I will do as you ask and stay here.'
Loken smiled. 'Don't mourn me yet, Nero. Tarik and I may yet prevail.'
'You'd better,' said Vipus. 'The Luna Wolves need you.'
Loken felt humbled by Nero's words and embraced his oldest friend. He dearly wished he could tell him that there was yet hope and that he expected to return alive from this mission.
'Garviel,' said a familiar voice from the entrance to the dome.
Loken and Nero released each other from their brotherly embrace and saw Saul Tarvitz, framed in the wan light of the auditorium's entrance. 'Saul,' said Loken.
'It's time,' said Tarvitz. 'We're ready to create the diversion you requested.'
Loken nodded and smiled at the two brave warriors, men he had fought through hell for and would do so a hundred times more. The honour they did him just by being his friends made his chest swell with pride. 'Captain Loken,' said Tarvitz formally. 'It may be that this is the last time we will meet.'
'I do not think,' replied Loken, 'there is any "maybe" about it.'
'Then I will wish you all speed, Garviel,'
'All speed, Saul,' said Loken, offering his hand to Tarvitz. 'For the Emperor,'
'For the Emperor,' echoed Tarvitz.
With his farewells said, Loken made his way from the auditorium, leaving Tarvitz and Vipus to organize the defences for the next attack.
Surviving tactical maps indicated that the Mackaran Basilica lay to the north of their position and as he made his way towards the point he had selected as the best place to leave the palace he found Torgaddon waiting for him. 'You saw Vipus?' asked Torgaddon.
'I did,' nodded Loken. 'He wanted to come with us.'
Torgaddon shook his head. 'This is Mournival business.'
'That's what I told him.'
Both warriors took deep breaths as the enormity of what they were about to attempt swept over them once again.
'Ready?' asked Loken.
'No,' said Torgaddon. 'You?'
'No.'
Torgaddon chuckled as he turned to the tunnel that led from the palace.
'Aren't we a pair?' he said and Loken followed him into the darkness.
For good or ill, the final battle for Isstvan III was upon them.
'YOU DARE RETURN to me in failure?' bellowed Horus, and the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit shook with the fury of his voice. His face twisted in anger at the wondrous figure standing before him, struggling to comprehend the scale of this latest setback.
'Do you even understand what I am trying to do here?' raged Horus. 'What I have started at Isstvan will consume the whole galaxy, and if it is flawed from the outset then the Emperor will break us!'
Fulgrim appeared uncowed by his anger, his brother's features betraying an insouciance quite out of character for the primarch of the Emperor's Children. Though he had but recently arrived on his flagship, Pride of the Emperor, Fulgrim looked as magnificent as ever.
His exquisite armour was a work of art in purple and gold, bearing many new embellishments and finery with a flowing, fur-lined cape swathing his body. More than ever, Horus thought Fulgrim looked less like a warrior and more like a rake or libertine. His brother's long white hair was pulled back in an elaborate pattern of plaits and his pale cheeks were lightly marked with what appeared to be the beginnings of tattoos.
'Ferrus Manus is a dull fool who would not listen to reason,' said Fulgrim. 'Even the mention of the Mechanicum's pledge did not-'
'You swore to me that you could sway him! The Iron Hands were essential to my plans. I planned Isstvan III with your assurance that Ferrus Manus would join us. Now I find that I have yet another enemy to contend with. A great many of our Astartes will die because of this, Fulgrim.'
'What would you have had me do, Warmaster?' smiled Fulgrim, and Horus wondered where this new, sly mocking tone had come from. 'His will was stronger than I anticipated.'
'Or you simply had an inflated opinion of your own abilities.'
'Would you have me kill our brother, Warmaster?' asked Fulgrim.
'Perhaps I will,' replied Horus unmoved. 'It would be better than leaving him to roam free to destroy our plans. As it is he could reach the Emperor or one of the other primarchs and bring them all down on our heads before we are ready.'
'Then if you are quite finished with me, I shall return to my Legion,' said Fulgrim, turning away.
Horus felt his choler rise at Fulgrim's infuriating tone and said, 'No, you will not. I have another task for you. I am sending you to Isstvan V. With all that has happened, the Emperor's response is likely to arrive more quickly than anticipated and we must be prepared for it. Take a detail of Emperor's Children to the alien fortresses there and prepare it for the final phase of th |
e are ready.'
'Then if you are quite finished with me, I shall return to my Legion,' said Fulgrim, turning away.
Horus felt his choler rise at Fulgrim's infuriating tone and said, 'No, you will not. I have another task for you. I am sending you to Isstvan V. With all that has happened, the Emperor's response is likely to arrive more quickly than anticipated and we must be prepared for it. Take a detail of Emperor's Children to the alien fortresses there and prepare it for the final phase of the Isstvan operation.'
Fulgrim recoiled in disgust. 'You would consign me to a role little better than a castellan, as some prosaic housekeeper making it ready for your grand entrance? Why not send for Perturabo? This kind of thing is more to his liking.'
'Perturabo has his own role to play,' said Horus. 'Even now he prepares to lay waste to his home world in my name. We shall be hearing more of our bitter brother very soon. Have no fear of that.'
'Then give this task to Mortarion. His grimy footsloggers will relish such an opportunity to muddy their hands for you!' spat Fulgrim. 'My Legion was the chosen of the Emperor in the years when he still deserved our service. I am the most glorious of his heroes and the right hand of this new Crusade. This is... this is a betrayal of the very principles for which I chose to join you, Horus!'
'Betrayal?' said Horus, his voice low and dangerous. 'A strong word, Fulgrim. Betrayal is what the Emperor forced upon us when he abandoned the galaxy to pursue his quest for godhood and gave over the conquests of our Crusade to scriveners and bureaucrats. Is that the charge you would level at me now, to my face, here on the bridge of my own ship?'
Fulgrim took a step back, his anger fading, but his eyes alight with the excitement of the confrontation. 'Perhaps I do, Horus. Perhaps someone needs to tell you a few home truths now that your precious Mournival is no more.'
'That sword,' said Horus, indicating the venom-sheened weapon that hung low at Fulgrim's waist. 'I gave you that blade as a symbol of my trust in you, Fulgrim. We alone know the true power that lies within it. That weapon almost killed me and yet I gave it away. Do you think I would give such a weapon to one I do not trust?'
'No, Warmaster,' said Fulgrim.
'Exactly. The Isstvan V phase of my plan is the most critical,' said Horus, stoking the dangerous embers of Fulgrim's ego. 'Even more so than what is happening below us. I can entrust it to no other. You must go to Isstvan V, my brother. All depends on its success.'
For a long, frightening moment, violent potential crackled between Horus and the primarch of the Emperor's Children.
Fulgrim laughed and said, 'Now you flatter me, hoping my ego will coerce me into obeying your orders.'
'Is it working?' asked Horus as the tension drained away.
'Yes,' admitted Fulgrim. 'Very well, the Warmaster's will be done. I will go to Isstvan V.'
'Eidolon will stay in command of the Emperor's Children until we join you at Isstvan V,' said Horus and Fulgrim nodded.
'He will relish the chance to prove himself further,' said Fulgrim.
'Now leave me, Fulgrim,' said Horus, 'You have work to do.'
SIXTEEN
Enemy within
The Eightfold Path
Honour must be satisfied
APOTHECARY VADDON FOUGHT to save Casto's life. The upper half of the warrior's armour had been removed and his bare torso was disfigured by a gory wound, flaps of skin and chunks of muscle blown aside like the petals of a bloody flower by an exploding bolter round.
'Pressure!' said Vaddon as he flicked over the settings on his narthecium gauntlet. Scalpels and syringes cycled as Brother Mathridon, an Emperor's Children Astartes who had lost a hand in the earlier fighting and served as Vaddon's assistant, kept pressure on the wound. Casto bucked underneath him, his teeth gritted against pain that would kill anyone but an Astartes.
Vaddon selected a syringe and pushed it into Casto's neck. The vial mounted on the gauntlet emptied, pumping Casto's system with stimulants to keep his heart forcing blood around his ruptured organs. Casto shook, nearly snapping the needle.
'Hold him still,' snapped Vaddon.
'Yes,' said a voice behind them. 'Hold him still. It will make it easier to kill him.'
Vaddon's head snapped up and he saw a warrior clad in the armour of an Emperor's Children lord commander. He carried an enormous hammer, purple arcs of energy playing around its massive head. Behind the warrior, Vaddon could see a score of Emperor's Children in purple and gold finery, their armour sheened with lapping powder and oil.
Instantly, he knew that these were no loyalists and felt a cold hand clutch at his chest as he saw that they were undone.
'Who are you?' demanded Vaddon, though he knew the answer already.
'I am your death, traitor!' said Eidolon, swinging his hammer and crushing Vaddon's skull with one blow.
HUNDREDS OF EMPEROR'S Children streamed into the palace from the east, on a tide of fire and blood. They fell upon the wounded first, Eidolon himself butchering those who lay waiting for Vaddon's ministrations, taking particular relish in killing the loyalist Emperor's Children he found there. The warriors of his Chapter swarmed through the palace around him, the defenders discovering to their horror that their flank had somehow been turned and that more and more of the traitors were pouring into the palace.
Within moments, the last battle had begun. The loyalists turned from their defences and faced the Emperor's Children. Assault Marines' jump packs gunned them across ruined domes to crash into Eidolon's assault units. Heavy weapons troopers and scout snipers amongst the ruined battlements shot down into the enemy, swapping tremendous volleys of fire across the shattered domes.
It was a battle without lines or direction as the fighting spilled into the heart of the Precentor's Palace. Each Astartes became an army of his own as all order broke down and every warrior fought alone against the enemies that surrounded him. Emperor's Children jetbikes screamed insanely through the precincts of the palace and ripped crazed circuits around the domes, spraying fire into the Astartes battling below them.
Dreadnoughts tore up chunks of fallen masonry with their mighty fists and hurled them at the loyalists holding the barricades against which so many of their foes had died only a short while before.
Everything was swirling madness, horror and destruction, with Eidolon at the centre of it, swinging his hammer and killing all who came near him as he led his perfect warriors deeper into the heart of the defences.
LUC SEDIRAE, WITH his blond hair and smirking grin, looked completely out of place among the rusting industrial spires of the Choral City. Beside him, Serghar Targost, Captain of the Seventh Company, seemed far more at home, his older, darker skin and heavy fur cloak more in keeping with a murdered world.
Sedirae stood on top of a rusting slab of fallen machinery before thousands of Sons of Horus arrayed for war. War paint was fresh on their breastplates and new banners dedicated to the warrior lodges flapped in the wind.
'Sons of Horus!' bellowed Sedirae, his voice brimming with the confidence that came to him so easily. 'For too long we have waited for our brother Legions to open the gate for us so we can put the doubters and the feeble-minded to the sword! At last, the hour has come! Lord Commander Eidolon has broken the siege and the time has come to show the Legions how the Sons of Horus fight!'
The warriors cheered and the lodge banners were raised high, displaying the facets of the beliefs underpinning the lodge philosophies. A brazen claw reached down from the sky to crush a world in its fist, a black star shone eight rays of death upon a horde of enemies and a great winged beast with two heads stood resplendent on a mountain of corpses.
Images from beyond, conjured by the words of Davinite priests who could look into the warp, they displayed the Sons of Horus's allegiance to the powers their Warmaster embraced.
'The enemy is in disarray,' shouted Sedirae over the cheering. 'We will fall upon them and sweep them away. You know your duties, Sons of Horus, and you all know that the paths you have followed have led you towards this day. For here we destroy the last vestiges of the old Crusade, and march towards the future!'
Sedirae's confidence was infectious and he knew they were ready.
Targost stepped forward and raised his hands. He bore the rank of lodge captain himself, privy to the secrets of the Davinite ways and as much a holy man as a commander. He opened his mouth and unleashed a stream of brutal syllables, guttural and dark, the tongue of Davin wrought into a prayer of victory and blood.
The Sons of Horus answered the prayer, their voices raised in a relentless chant that echoed around the dead spires of the Choral City.
And when the prayers were done, the Sons of Horus marched to war.
FIRE STORMED AROUND Tarvitz. Emperor's Children Terminators raked the central dome with fire and the sounds of battle hand-to-hand combat came from the shattered gallery. Tarvitz ducked and ran as bolter fire kicked up fragments around him, sliding into cover beside Brother Solathen of Squad Nasicae. Solathen and about thirty loyalist Emperor's Children were pinned down behind a great fallen column, a few Luna Wolves among them.
'What in the Emperor's name happened?' shouted Tarvitz. 'How did they get in?'
'I don't know, sir,' replied Solathen. 'They came from the east.'
'We should have had some warning,' said Tarvitz. 'That's Lucius's sector. Have you seen him at all?'
'Lucius?' asked Solathen. 'No, he must have fallen.'
Tarvitz shook his head. 'Not likely. I have to find him.'
'We can't hold out here,' said Solathen. 'We have to pull back and we won't be able to wait for you.'
Tarvitz nodded, but knew that he had to try and find Lucius, even if it was just to recover his body. He doubted Lucius cou |
know, sir,' replied Solathen. 'They came from the east.'
'We should have had some warning,' said Tarvitz. 'That's Lucius's sector. Have you seen him at all?'
'Lucius?' asked Solathen. 'No, he must have fallen.'
Tarvitz shook his head. 'Not likely. I have to find him.'
'We can't hold out here,' said Solathen. 'We have to pull back and we won't be able to wait for you.'
Tarvitz nodded, but knew that he had to try and find Lucius, even if it was just to recover his body. He doubted Lucius could ever really die, but knew that, amid this carnage, anything was possible.
'Very well,' said Tarvitz. 'Go. Fall back in good order to the inner domes and the temple, there are barricades there. Go! And don't wait for me!'
He put his head briefly over the pillar and fired his bolter, kicking a burst of shots towards Eidolon's Emperor's Children swarming all over the far side of the dome. More covering fire sprayed from his warriors' guns as they began falling back by squads.
The dome between him and his goal was littered with bodies, some of them chewed into unrecognisable sprays of torn flesh. He waited until his warriors had put enough distance between them and the enemy and broke from cover.
Bolter shots tore up the ground beside him and he rolled into the cover of a fallen pillar, crawling as fast as he could to reach the passageway that led from the dome and curved around its columned circumference towards the east wing of the Precentor's Palace.
Lucius was somewhere in these ruins and Tarvitz had to find him.
LOKEN DUCKED AND threw himself to the floor, skidding along the fire-blackened tiles of the plaza. The palace loomed above him, whirling as Loken spun on his back and fired up at the closest World Eater. One shot caught the warrior in the leg and he collapsed in a roaring heap. Torgaddon leapt upon him, plunging his sword into the traitor's back.
Loken climbed to his feet as more fire stuttered across the plaza. He tried to get a bearing on the enemy among the heaps of the dead and the jagged slabs of marble sticking up from the edges of shell craters, but it was impossible.
The plaza between the chaos of the palace and the dark mass of the city was infested with World Eaters, charging forwards to exploit the breach made by the Emperor's Children.
'There's a whole squad out here,' said Torgaddon, wrenching his sword from the World Eater. 'We're right in the middle of them.'
'Then we keep going,' said Loken.
Back on his feet, he reloaded his bolter as they hurried through the wreckage and charnel heaps, scanning the darkness for movement. Torgaddon kept close behind him, sweeping his bolter between chunks of tiling or fallen masonry. Fire snapped around them and the sounds of battle coming from the palace became ever more terrible, the war-cries and explosions tearing through the violent night.
'Down!' yelled Torgaddon as a burst of plasma fire lanced from the darkness. Loken threw himself to the ground as the searing bolt flashed past him and bored a hole in a slab of fallen stone behind him. A dark shape came at him and Loken saw the flash of a blade, bringing his bolter up in an instinctive block. He felt chainblade teeth grinding against the metal of his gun and kicked out at his attacker's groin.
The World Eater pivoted away from the blow easily, turning to smash Torgaddon to the ground with the butt of his chainaxe. Torgaddon's attack gave Loken a chance to regain his feet and he threw aside the ruined bolter to draw his own sword.
Torgaddon wrestled with another World Eater on the ground, but his friend would have to fend for himself as Loken saw that his opponent was a captain, and not just any captain, but one of the World Eaters' best.
'Kharn!' said Loken as the warrior attacked.
Kharn paused in his attack and, for the briefest moment, Loken saw the noble warrior he had spoken with in the Museum of Conquest, before something else swamped it again - something that twisted Kharn's face with hatred.
That second was enough for Loken, allowing him to dodge back behind a fan of broken stone jutting from the edge of crater. Bullets still carved through the air and somewhere beyond his sight, Torgaddon was fighting his own battle, but Loken could not worry about that now.
'What happened, Kharn?' cried Loken. 'What did they turn you into?'
Kharn screamed an incoherent bellow of rage and leapt towards him with his axe held high. Loken braced his stance and brought his blade up to catch Kharn's axe as it slashed towards him and the two warriors clashed in a desperate battle of strength
'Kharn...' said Loken through gritted teeth as the World Eater forced the chainaxe's whirling teeth towards his face. 'This is not the man I knew! What have you become?'
As their eyes met, Loken saw Kharn's soul and despaired. He saw the warrior who had sworn oaths of brotherhood and pledged himself to the Crusade as he himself had done, the warrior who had seen the terrors and tragedies of the Crusade as well as its victories. And he saw the dark madness that had swamped that in bloodshed and betrayals yet to be enacted.
'I am the Eightfold Path,' snapped Kharn, his every words punctuated by a froth of blood.
'No!' shouted Loken, pushing the World Eater away. 'It doesn't have to be this way.'
'It does,' said Kharn. 'There is no way off the Path. We must always go further.'
The humanity drained from Kharn's face and Loken knew that the World Eater was truly gone and that only in death would this battle end.
Loken backed away, fending off a flurry of blows from Kharn's axe, until he was forced back against a slab of rubble. His foe's axe buried itself in the stone beside him and Loken slammed the pommel of his sword into Kharn's head. Kharn rode the blow and smashed his forehead into Loken's face, grabbing his sword arm and wrestling him to the ground.
They struggled in the mud like animals, Kharn trying to grind Loken's face into the shattered stone and Loken trying to throw him off. Loken rolled onto his back as he heard the rumble of an engine like an earthquake and the glare of floodlights stabbed out and threw Kharn's outline into silhouette.
Knowing what was coming, Loken hammered his fist into Kharn's face over and over again, pushing him upright with a hand clasped around his neck. The World Eater struggled in Loken's grip as the light grew stronger and the roaring form of a Land Raider crested the ridge of rubble behind them like a monster rising from the deep.
Loken felt the huge impact as the Land Raider's dozer blade slammed into Kharn, the sharpened prongs at its base punching through the World Eater's chest. He released Kharn's body and rolled to the edge of the crater as the Land Raider rose up, carrying the struggling Kharn with it. The mighty tank crashed back down and Loken pressed his body into the mud as it ground over him, the roaring of its engine passing inches above him.
Then it was over, the tank rumbled onwards, carrying the impaled World Eater before it like some gory trophy. Tanks were all around him, the Eye of Horus glaring from their armoured hulls, and Loken recognized the livery they were painted in. The Sons of Horus.
For a moment, Loken just stared at the force surging towards the palace. Gunfire flared as they drove towards their prize.
A hand reached down and grabbed Loken, dragging him, battered and bloody, into cover from the guns of the tanks. He looked up and saw Torgaddon, similarly mauled by the encounter with the World Eaters.
Torgaddon nodded in the direction of the Land Raider. 'Was that-?'
'Kharn,' nodded Loken. 'He's gone.'
'Dead?'
'Maybe, I don't know.'
Torgaddon looked up at the Sons of Horus speartip driving for the palace. 'I think even Tarvitz might have trouble holding the palace now.'
'Then we'll have to hurry.'
'Yes. Stay low and let's keep out of any more trouble,' said Torgaddon, 'unless Abaddon and Little Horus aren't challenging enough on their own.'
'Saul will make them pay for every piece of rubble they capture,' said Loken, pulling himself painfully to his feet. Kharn had hurt him, but not so much that he couldn't fight. 'For his sake, let's make that count for something.'
The two friends forged through the rubble once again, towards the Mackaran Basilica.
Where lay one last chance of a victory on Isstvan III.
THE SOUNDS OF battle echoed from all around him and Tarvitz hugged the shadows as he made his careful way through the ruins of the east wing of the palace. Squads of Emperor's Children swarmed through the palace grounds, sweeping through the shattered domes and gunfire riddled rooms as they plunged the knife of their attack into the heart of the defences.
Here and there he saw squad markings he recognized and had to fight the ingrained urge to call out to them. But these warriors were the enemy and there would be no brotherly embrace or comradely welcome were they to discover him.
The very obsessiveness of their attack was working in Tarvitz's favour as these warriors possessed the same single mindedness as Eidolon, fixated on the prize of the palace rather than proper battlefield awareness. For once, Eidolon's flaws were working in his favour, thought Tarvitz, as he ghosted through the strobe-lit wasteland of the palace.
'You're going to need to tighten up discipline, Eidolon,' he whispered, 'or someone's going to make you pay.'
The eastern sectors he had assigned Lucius and his men to watch over were bombed out ruins, the frescoes burned from the walls by the firestorm, and the mighty statue gardens pulverized by constant shelling and the battles that had raged furiously over the past months. To have held out this long was a miracle in itself and Tarvitz was not blind enough to try and fool himself into thinking that it could last much longer.
He saw dozens of bodies and checked every one for a sign that the swordsman had fallen. Each body was a warrior he knew, a warrior who had followed him into battle at the |
frescoes burned from the walls by the firestorm, and the mighty statue gardens pulverized by constant shelling and the battles that had raged furiously over the past months. To have held out this long was a miracle in itself and Tarvitz was not blind enough to try and fool himself into thinking that it could last much longer.
He saw dozens of bodies and checked every one for a sign that the swordsman had fallen. Each body was a warrior he knew, a warrior who had followed him into battle at the palace and trusted that he could lead them to victory. Each set of eyes accused him of their death, but he knew that there was nothing more he could have done.
The further eastward he went the less he encountered the invading Emperor's Children, their attack pushing into the centre of the Precentor's Palace rather than spreading out to capture its entirety.
Trust Eidolon to go for the glory rather than standard battlefield practice.
Give me a hundred Space Marines and I would punish your arrogance, thought Tarvitz.
Even as the thought occurred to him, a slow smile spread across his face. He had a hundred Space Marines. True, they were engaged in battle, but if any force of warriors could disengage from battle in good order and hand over to a friendly force in the middle of a desperate firefight, it was the Emperor's Children.
He crouched in the shadow of a fallen statue and opened a vox-channel. 'Solathen,' he hissed. 'Can you hear me?'
Static washed from the vox bead in his ear and he cursed at the idea of his plan being undone by something as trivial as a failure of communications.
'I hear you, captain, but we're a little busy right now!' said Solathen's voice.
'Understood,' said Tarvitz, 'but I have new orders for you. Disengage from the fight and hand over to the Luna Wolves. Let them take the brunt of the fighting and gather as many warriors as you can rally to you. Then converge on my position.'
'Sir?'
'Take the eastern passages along the servants' wing. That should bring you to me without too much trouble. We have an opportunity to hurt these bastards, Solathen, so I need you to get here with all possible speed!'
'Understood, sir,' said Solathen, signing off. Tarvitz froze as he heard a voice say, 'It won't do any good, Saul. The Precentor's Palace is as good as lost. Even you should be able to see that.'
He looked up and saw Lucius standing in the center of the dome in front of him, his shimmering sword in one hand and a shard of broken glass in the other. He raised the glass to his face and sliced its razor edge along his cheek, drawing a line of blood from his skin that dripped to the dome's floor.
'Lucius,' said Tarvitz, rising to his feet and entering the dome to meet the swordsman. 'I thought you were dead.'
Bright starlight filled the dome and Tarvitz saw it was filled with the corpses of Emperor's Children.
Not traitors, but loyalists and he could see that not one had fallen to a gunshot wound, but had been carved up by a powerful edged weapon. These warriors had been cut apart, and a horrible suspicion began to form in his mind.
'Dead?' laughed Lucius. 'Me? Remember what Loken said to me when I humbled him in the practice cages?'
Wary now, Tarvitz nodded. 'He said there was someone out there who could beat you.'
'And do you remember what I told him?'
'Yes,' replied Tarvitz, sliding his hand to the hilt of his broadsword. 'You said, "Not in this lifetime," didn't you?'
'You have a good memory,' said Lucius, dropping the bloody shard of glass to the floor.
'Who's that latest scar for?' asked Tarvitz.
Lucius smiled, though there was no warmth to it.
'It's for you, Saul.'
THE GREAT FORUM of the Mackaran Basilica was a desert of ashen bone, for as the virus bombs had dropped, thousands of Isstvanians had gathered there in the hope that the parliament house at one end of the forum would receive them. They had thronged the place and died there, their scorched remains resembling an ancient swamp from which rose the columns that bounded the forum on three sides. On the fourth was the parliament house itself, befouled by black tendrils of ash that reached up from the forum.
The building had been the seat of the Choral City's civilian parliament, a counterpart to the nobles who had ruled from the Precentor's Palace, but the prominent citizens who had taken shelter inside had died as surely as the horde of civilians outside.
Loken pushed through the sea of black bones, his sword ready in his hand as he forged through the thicket of bone. A skull grinned up at him, its burned and empty eye sockets accusing. Behind him, Torgaddon covered the forum beyond them.
'Wait,' said Loken quietly.
Torgaddon halted and looked round. 'Is it them?'
'I don't know, maybe,' said Loken, looking up at the parliament house. Beyond it he could just see the lines of a spacecraft, a stormbird in Sons of Horus colours. 'Someone landed here, that's for sure.'
They continued onwards to the edge of the parliament building, climbing the smooth marble steps. Its great doors had been thick studded oak, but they had been eaten away by the virus and burned to ash by the firestorm.
'Shall we?' asked Torgaddon.
Loken nodded, suddenly wishing that they had not come here, as a terrible feeling of doom settled on him. He looked at Torgaddon and wished he had some fitting words to say to him before they took these last, fateful steps.
Torgaddon seemed to understand what he was thinking and said, 'Yes. I know, but what choice do we have?'
'None,' said Loken, marching through the archway and into the parliament house.
The interior of the building had been protected from the worst of the virus bombing and firestorm, only a few tangled blackened corpses lying sprawled among the dark wood panels and furnishings. The walls of the circular building were adorned with faded frescoes of the Choral City's magnificent past, telling the tales of its growth and conquests.
The benches and voting-tables of the parliament were arranged around a central stage with a lectern from which the debates were led.
On the stage, in front of the lectern, stood Ezekyle Abaddon and Horus Aximand.
'YOU BETRAYED US,' said Tarvitz, the hurt and disappointment almost too much to bear. 'You killed your own men and let Eidolon and his warriors into the palace. Didn't you?'
'I did,' said Lucius, swinging his sword in loops around his body as he loosened his muscles in preparation for the fight Tarvitz knew must come next. 'And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.'
Tarvitz circled the edge of the dome, his steps in time with those of the swordsman. He had no illusions as to the outcome of this fight: Lucius was the pre-eminent blade master of the Legion, perhaps all the Legions. He knew he could not defeat Lucius, but this betrayal demanded retribution.
Honour must be satisfied.
'Why, Lucius?' asked Tarvitz.
'How can you ask me that, Saul?' demanded Lucius, drawing the circle closer and, step by step, the distance between the two warriors shrank. 'I am only here thanks to my misplaced acquaintance with you. I know what the lord commander and Fabius offered you. How could you turn such an opportunity down?'
'It was an abomination, Lucius,' said Tarvitz, knowing he had to keep Lucius talking for as long as he could. 'To tamper with the gene-seed? How can you possibly believe that the Emperor would condone such a thing?'
'The Emperor?' laughed Lucius. 'Are you so sure he would disapprove? Look at what he did to create the primarchs? Aren't we the result of genetic manipulation? The experiments Fabius is conducting are the logical next link in that evolutionary chain. We are a superior race and we must establish that superiority over any lesser beings that stand in our way.'
'Even your fellow warriors?' spat Tarvitz, gesturing to the corpses around the dome's circumference with the blade of his sword.
Lucius shrugged. 'Even them. I am going to rejoin my Legion and they tried to stop me. What choice did I have? Just like you are going to try and stop me.'
'You'll kill me too?' asked Tarvitz. 'After all the years we've fought together?'
'Don't try and appeal to my sense of fond reminiscences, Saul,' warned Lucius. 'I am better than you and I am going to achieve great things in the service of my Legion. Neither you or any foolish sense of misplaced loyalty are going to stop me.'
Lucius lifted the blade of his sword and dropped into a fighting crouch as Tarvitz approached him. The dome seemed suddenly silent as the two combatants circled one another, each searching for a weakness in the other's defences. Tarvitz drew his combat knife in his left hand and reversed the blade, knowing he would need as many blades between him and Lucius as humanly possible.
Tarvitz knew there were no more words to be spoken. This could only end in blood.
Without warning, he leapt towards Lucius, thrusting with the smaller blade, but even as he attacked he saw that Lucius had been expecting it.
Lucius swayed aside and swept the hilt of his sword down, smashing the knife from his hand. The swordsman ducked as Tarvitz turned on his heel and slashed high with his sword.
Tarvitz's blade cut only air and Lucius hammered his elbow into his side.
He danced away, expecting Lucius to land a blow, but the swordsman merely smiled and danced around him lightly on the balls of his feet. Lucius was playing with him, and he felt his anger mount in the face of such mockery.
Lucius advanced towards Tarvitz, darting in with the speed of a striking snake to thrust at his stomach. Tarvitz blocked the thrust, rolling his wrists over Lucius's blade and slashing for his neck, but the swordsman had anticipated the move and nimbly dodged the blow.
Tarvitz attacked suddenly, his blade a flashing blur of steel that forced Lucius back step by step. Lucius parried a vicious slash aimed at his groin, spinning with a laugh to launch a lightning riposte at his foe.
Tarvitz saw the blade cut the air |
ds Tarvitz, darting in with the speed of a striking snake to thrust at his stomach. Tarvitz blocked the thrust, rolling his wrists over Lucius's blade and slashing for his neck, but the swordsman had anticipated the move and nimbly dodged the blow.
Tarvitz attacked suddenly, his blade a flashing blur of steel that forced Lucius back step by step. Lucius parried a vicious slash aimed at his groin, spinning with a laugh to launch a lightning riposte at his foe.
Tarvitz saw the blade cut the air towards him, knowing he was powerless to prevent it landing. He hurled himself back, but felt a red-hot line of agony as the energised edge bit deep into his side. He clamped a hand to his side as blood spilled down his armour, gasping in pain before his armour dispensed stimulants that blocked it.
Tarvitz backed away from Lucius and the swordsman followed with a grin of anticipation.
'If that's the best you've got, Saul, then you'd best give up now,' smirked Lucius. 'I promise I'll make it quick.'
'I was just about to say the same thing, Lucius,' gasped Tarvitz, lifting his sword once again.
The two warriors clashed once more, their swords shimmering streaks of silver and blue as coruscating sparks spat from their blades. Tarvitz fought with every ounce of courage, strength and skill he could muster, but he knew it was hopeless. Lucius parried his every attack with ease and casually landed cut after cut on his flesh, enough to draw blood and hurt, but not enough to kill.
Blood gathered in the corner of his mouth as he staggered away from yet another wounding blow.
'A hit,' sniggered Lucius. 'A palpable hit.'
Tarvitz knew he was fighting with the last of his reserves and the fight could not go on much longer. Soon Lucius would tire of his poor sport and finish him, but perhaps he had held him here for long enough.
'Had enough?' coughed Tarvitz. 'You don't have to die here.'
Lucius cocked his head to one side as he advanced towards him and said, 'You're serious, aren't you? You actually think you can beat me.'
Tarvitz nodded and spat blood. 'Come on and have a go if you think you can kill me.'
Lucius leapt forwards to attack and Tarvitz dropped his sword and leapt to meet him. Surprised by such an obviously suicidal move, Lucius was a fraction of a second too late to dodge Tarvitz's attack.
The two warriors clashed in the air and Tarvitz smashed his fist into the swordsman's face. Lucius turned his head to rob the blow of its force, but Tarvitz gave him no chance to right himself as they fell to the floor, and pistoned his fist into his former comrade's face. Lucius's sword skittered away and they fought with fists and elbows, knees and feet.
At such close quarters, skill with a blade was irrelevant and Tarvitz let his hate and anger spill out in every thunderous hammer blow he landed. They rolled and grappled like brawling street thugs, Tarvitz punching Lucius with powerful blows that would have killed a mortal man a dozen times over, the swordsman struggling to push Tarvitz clear.
'I also remember what Loken taught you the first time he brought you down,' gasped Tarvitz as he saw movement at the edge of the dome. 'Understand your foe and do whatever is necessary to bring him down.'
He released his grip on Lucius and rolled clear, pushing himself as far away from the swordsman as he could. Lucius sprang to his feet in an instant, scrambling across the floor to retrieve his weapon.
'Now, Solathen!' shouted Tarvitz. 'Kill him! He betrayed us all!'
He watched as Lucius turned towards the dome's entrance, seeing the warriors Solathen had rallied and brought to him. Solathen obeyed Tarvitz's command instantly, as a good Emperor's Children should, and the dome was suddenly filled with the bark of gunfire. Lucius dived out of the way, but even he wasn't quick enough to avoid a volley of bolter shells.
Lucius jerked and danced in the fusillade, sparks and blood flying from his armour. He rolled across the floor, scrabbling for a hole in the wall blasted by the months of battle as the gunfire of the loyalist Emperor's Children tore into him.
'Kill him!' yelled Tarvitz, but Lucius was faster than he would have believed possible, diving from the dome as shells tore up scorched frescoes around him.
Tarvitz pushed himself to his feet and staggered over towards where Lucius had escaped.
Beyond the dome, the outer precincts of the palace were a nightmarish landscape of craters and blackened ruins. A pall of smoke hung over the battlefield the palace had become and he smashed his fist into the wall in frustration as he saw that the swordsman had vanished.
'Captain Tarvitz?' said Solathen. 'Reporting as ordered.'
Tarvitz turned from his search for Lucius, pushing his frustrations aside and focusing on the more immediate matter of counter-attacking Eidolon's warriors.
'My thanks, Solathen. I owe you my life,' he said.
The warrior nodded as Tarvitz picked up a fallen bolter and checked the magazine to make sure he had a full load.
'Now come on,' he said grimly. 'Let's show these bastards how the real Emperor's Children fight!'
SEVENTEEN
Winning is survival
Dies Irae
The end
'BETRAYER,' SAID LOKEN, stepping into the parliament house.
'There was nothing to betray,' retorted Abaddon.
Even after all that had happened on Isstvan III, the word betrayal had the power to ignite the ever-present anger inside him.
'I envy you this, Loken,' continued Abaddon. 'To you the galaxy must seem so simple. So long as there's someone you can call enemy you'll fight to the death and think you are right.'
'I know I am right, Ezekyle!' shouted Loken. 'How can this be anything but wrong? The death of this city and the murder of your brothers? What has happened to you, Abaddon, to turn you into this?'
Abaddon stepped down off the stage, leaving Aximand to stand alone at the lectern. In his Terminator armour Abaddon was far taller than Loken and he knew from witnessing the first captain in battle that he could still fight as skillfully as any Astartes in power armour.
'Isstvan III was forced upon us by the inability of small minds to understand reality,' said Abaddon. 'Do you think I have been a part of this, and that I am here, because I enjoy killing my brothers? I believe, Loken, as surely as you do. There are powers in this galaxy that even the Emperor does not understand. If he leaves humanity to wither on the vine in his selfish quest for godhood then those powers will swamp us and every single human being in this galaxy will die. Can you understand the enormity of that concept? The whole human race! The Warmaster does, and that is why he must take the Emperor's place to deal with these threats.'
'Deal with them?' said Torgaddon, shaking his head. 'You are a fool, Ezekyle, we saw what Erebus was doing. He has lied to you all. You have made a pact with evil powers.'
'Evil?' said Aximand. 'They saved the Warmaster's life. I have seen their power and it is within the Warmaster's ability to control them. You think we are fools, that we are blind? The forces of the warp are the key to this galaxy. That is what the Emperor cannot understand. The Warmaster will be lord of the warp as well of the Imperium and then we will rule the stars.'
'No,' replied Loken. 'The Warmaster has become corrupted. If he takes the throne it will not be humanity that rules the galaxy, it will be something else. You know that, Little Horus, even if Ezekyle doesn't. He doesn't care about the galaxy; he just wants to be on the winning side.'
Abaddon smiled, slowly approaching Loken as Torgaddon circled towards Horus Aximand. 'Winning is survival, Loken. You die, you lose, and nothing you ever believed ever meant anything. I live, I win, and you might as well have never existed. Victory, Loken. It's the only thing in the galaxy that means anything. You should have spent more time being a soldier, maybe then you would have ended up on the winning side.'
Loken held up his sword, trying to gauge Abaddon's movements. 'There is always time to decide who wins.'
He could see Abaddon tensing up, ready to strike, and knew that the first captain's taunting was just a cover.
'Loken, you have come so far,' said Abaddon, 'and you still don't understand what we're doing here. We're not so far from human that we're not allowed a few mistakes, but to fight us instead of realizing what the Warmaster is trying to achieve... that's unforgivable.'
'Then what's your mistake, Ezekyle?'
'Talking too much,' replied Abaddon, launching himself towards Loken with his bladed fist bathed in lethal energies.
TORGADDON WATCHED AS Abaddon charged towards Loken, taking that as his cue to attack Little Horus. His former comrade had seen the intent in his eyes and leapt to meet him as Loken and Abaddon smashed apart the pews along the nave.
They met in a clatter of battle plate, fighting with all the strength and hatred that only those who were once brothers, but are now bitter enemies, can muster. They grappled like wrestlers until Aximand flung Torgaddon's arms wide and smashed his elbow into his jaw.
He fell back, blocked the right cross slashing for his face, and closed with Aximand, cracking an armoured knee into his opponent's midriff.
Little Horus stumbled and Torgaddon knew that it would take more than a knee in the guts to halt a warrior such as Aximand. His former brother was powerfully built, his strength, poise and skill the equal of Torgaddon's.
The two warriors faced one another, and Torgaddon could see a look of regret flash across Little Horus's face.
'Why are you doing this?' asked Torgaddon.
'You said you were against us,' replied Aximand.
'And we are.'
Both warriors lowered their guards; they were brothers, members of the Mournival who had seen so many battles together that there was no need for posturing. They both knew how the other fought.
'Tarik,' said Aximand, 'if this could have ended another way, we would have taken it. None of us would have c |
e another, and Torgaddon could see a look of regret flash across Little Horus's face.
'Why are you doing this?' asked Torgaddon.
'You said you were against us,' replied Aximand.
'And we are.'
Both warriors lowered their guards; they were brothers, members of the Mournival who had seen so many battles together that there was no need for posturing. They both knew how the other fought.
'Tarik,' said Aximand, 'if this could have ended another way, we would have taken it. None of us would have chosen this way.'
'Little Horus, when did you realize how far you had gone? Was it when the Warmaster told you we were going to be bombed, or some time before?'
Aximand glanced over to where Loken and Abaddon fought. 'You can walk away from this, Tarik. The Warmaster wants Loken dead, but he said nothing about you.'
Torgaddon laughed. 'We called you Little Horus because you looked so like him, but we were wrong. Horus never had that doubt in his eyes. You're not sure, Aximand. Maybe you're on the wrong side. Maybe this is the last chance you've got to end your life as a Space Marine and not as a slave.'
Aximand smiled bleakly. 'I've seen it, Tarik, the warp. You can't stand against that.'
'And yet here I am.'
'If you had just taken the chance the lodge gave you, you would have seen it too. They can give us such power. If you only knew, Tarik, you'd join us in a second. The whole future would be laid out before you.'
'You know I can't back down. No more than you can.'
'Then this is it?'
'Yes, it is. As you said, none of us would have chosen this.'
Aximand readied himself. 'Just like the practice cages, Tarik.'
'No,' said Torgaddon, 'nothing like that.'
THE ENERGISED CLAW swung at Loken's head, and he ducked, too late seeing it for the feint it was. Abaddon grabbed him by the edge of his shoulder guard and drove his knee into Loken's stomach. Ceramite buckled and Loken felt pain knife into him as bones broke.
Abaddon released him and punched him in the face. He was thrown against the wall of the parliament, scorched plaster and brick falling around him.
'The Warmaster wanted me to bring the Justaerin, but I told him it was an insult.'
Loken saw his sword lying on the floor beside him and slid down the wall to grab it. He pushed off the wall, pivoting past Abaddon's slashing fist, swinging the blade towards the first captain's face.
Abaddon blocked the blow with his forearm, reaching out to pluck Loken from his feet and hurl him towards the parliament building's wall. The world spun away from him and suddenly there was pain.
His vision blurred as he smacked into the ground and shards of stone flew up around him. The pain within him felt strange, as if it belonged to someone else. It felt as if his back was broken and a treacherous voice in his mind whispered that the pain would go away if he just gave up and let it all go away in a fog of oblivion. His grip tightened on his sword and he let his anger fuel his strength to fight against the voice in his head that told him to give up.
A long time ago, Loken had sworn an oath to his Emperor, and that oath was never to give up, even as the moment of death approached. His vision swam back into focus, and he looked up to see the hole in the parliament house's wall his body had smashed.
Loken rolled onto his front as Abaddon's massive armoured form charged towards him, smashing aside the blackened remains of the breach.
He scrambled to his feet and backed away, letting Abaddon's fist swing past him. He darted in, stabbing with his sword, but the thick plates of his enemy's armour turned the blade aside. He scrambled back up the steps of the parliament house, hearing Torgaddon and Little Horus fighting within and knowing that he needed his brother's strength to triumph.
'You can't run forever!' roared Abaddon as he turned to follow him, his steps ponderous and heavy.
SAUL TARVITZ GRINNED like a hunter who had finally run his prey to ground. The warriors he and Solathen led cut a bloody swathe through Eidolon's warriors, killing them without mercy as they themselves had been killed so recently. What had once been an attack that threatened to overwhelm them utterly was now in danger of becoming a rout for the traitors.
Gunfire echoed fiercely through the palace as the loyalists unleashed volley after volley of gunfire at anything that moved. Loyalist Space Marines surrounded Eidolon's assault force and, attacked on two fronts. The lord commander's force was buckling.
Tarvitz could see warriors with missing limbs or massive open wounds struggling in the desperate fight, jostling to get a position where they could kill the traitors who had so nearly overrun them. His own sword reaped a bloody tally as he killed warriors he had once fought with and bled alongside, each sword blow a cruel twist of fate that brought aching sadness as much as it did cathartic satisfaction.
He saw Eidolon in the centre of the battle, smashing warriors to ruin with each swing of his hammer and fought his way through the battle to reach the lord commander. His own body ached from the duel with Lucius, but he knew that there was no point in calling for an apothecary. Whatever wounds he was suffering from would never have a chance to heal. It would end here, Tarvitz knew, but it would be a hell of a fight and he had never felt more proud to lead these brave warriors into battle.
To have such noble fighters almost undone by a supposedly loyal comrade's betrayal was a galling, yet somehow fitting end to their struggle. Lucius had very nearly cost them this battle and Tarvitz swore that if he lived through this hell, he would see the bastard dead once and for all.
The lord commander was almost within his reach, but no sooner had Eidolon seen him than the traitors began falling back in disciplined ranks. Tarvitz wanted to scream in frustration, but knew better than to simply hurl himself after his foe.
'Firing line across the nave!' shouted Tarvitz at the top of his voice and instantly, a contingent of Astartes formed up and began firing disciplined volleys of bolter fire at the retreating enemy.
He lowered his sword and leaned against the broken wall as he realised that, against all odds, they had held once more. Before he had a moment to savour the unlikeliness of their latest victory, the vox-bead chimed in his ear.
'Captain Tarvitz,' said a voice he recognised as one of the Luna Wolves,
'Tarvitz here,' he said.
'This is Vipus, captain. The position on the roof is sound but we've got company.'
'I know,' replied Tarvitz. 'The Sons of Horus.'
'Worse than that,' said Vipus. 'To the west, look up.'
Tarvitz pushed through the remains of the battle and scanned the sky above the crumbling, smoke wreathed ruins. Something moved towards the palace, something distant, but utterly huge.
'Sweet Terra,' he said, 'the Dies Irae.'
'I'll make the Titan our priority target,' swore Vipus.
'No, you can't hurt it. Just kill enemy Space Marines.'
'Yes, captain.'
'Enemy units!' a voice yelled from near the temple entrance. 'Armour and support!'
Tarvitz pushed himself from the wall, drawing on his last reserves of energy to once again muster his warriors for the defence of the palace. 'Assault units by the doors! All other Astartes, fire at will!'
Tarvitz could see a huge strike force of enemy forces, boxy Land Raiders and Rhinos massing on the outskirts of the Precentor's Palace. Beyond them, Sons of Horus, World Eaters and Emperor's Children set up fields of fire to surround the temple.
The Dies Irae would soon be in range to blast them with its enormous weaponry.
'They'll be coming again soon,' shouted Tarvitz, 'but we'll see them off again, my brothers! No matter what occurs, they will not forget the fight we've given them here!'
Looking at the size of the army arrayed for the final assault, Tarvitz knew that there would be no holding against it.
This was the endgame.
TERMINATOR ARMOUR WAS huge. It made a man into a walking tank, but what it added in protection, it lost in speed. Abaddon was skilful and could fight almost as fast as any other Astartes while clad in its thick plates.
But 'almost' wasn't good enough when life or death was at stake.
Chunks of rubble spilled into the parliament house as Abaddon battered his way back inside, the brutal high-shouldered shape of his Terminator armour wreathed in chalky plaster dust. As Abaddon smashed his way back inside, he passed beneath a sagging portico that supported a vast swathe of sculpted marble statuary above. Loken struck out at one of the cracked pillars supporting the portico, the fluted support smashing apart under the power of the blow.
The parliament filled with dust as the huge slabs above came down on Abaddon, the entire weight of the statuary collapsing on top of the first captain. Loken could hear Abaddon roaring in anger as the stonework thundered down in a flurry of rubble and destruction.
He turned away from the avalanche of debris and fought his way through the billowing clouds of dust towards the centre of the parliament building.
He saw Torgaddon and Horus Aximand upon the central stage.
Torgaddon was on his knees, blood raining from his body and his limbs shattered. Aximand held his sword upraised, ready to deliver the deathblow.
He saw what would happen next even as he screamed at his former brother to stay his hand. Even over the crash of rubble being displaced as Abaddon forced himself free of the collapsed statues, he heard Aximand's words with a terrible clarity.
'I'm sorry,' said Aximand.
And the sword slashed down against Torgaddon's neck.
THE PLASMA BOLT was like a finger of the sun, reaching down from the guns of the Dies Irae and smashing through the wall of the Warsingers' Temple, the liquid fire boring deep into the ground. With a sound like the city dying, one wall of the temple collapsed as dust and fire filled the air and shards of green stone flew like knives. Warriors melted in the heat b |
, he heard Aximand's words with a terrible clarity.
'I'm sorry,' said Aximand.
And the sword slashed down against Torgaddon's neck.
THE PLASMA BOLT was like a finger of the sun, reaching down from the guns of the Dies Irae and smashing through the wall of the Warsingers' Temple, the liquid fire boring deep into the ground. With a sound like the city dying, one wall of the temple collapsed as dust and fire filled the air and shards of green stone flew like knives. Warriors melted in the heat blast or died beneath the heaps of stone that collapsed around them.
Tarvitz fell to his knees on the winding stairway that climbed to the upper reaches of the temple. A choking mass of burning ash billowed around him and he fought his way upwards, knowing that hundreds of the last loyalist Space Marines were dead. The sound was appalling, the roar of the collapsing temple stark against the silence of the traitors that surrounded the temple on all sides.
A body fell past him, one of the Luna Wolves, his arm blown off by weapons fire hammering the upper floors.
'To the roof!' ordered Tarvitz, not knowing if anyone could hear him over the cacophony of the Titan's guns. 'Abandon the nave!'
Tarvitz reached the gallery running the length of the temple, finding it crammed with Space Marines, their Legion colours unrecognisable beneath layers of grime and blood. Such distinctions were irrelevant, Tarvitz realized, for they were one band of brothers fighting for the same cause.
Above this level was the roof, and Tarvitz spotted Sergeant Raetherin, a solid line officer and veteran of the Murder campaign.
'Sergeant!' he yelled. 'Report!'
Raetherin looked up from the window through which he was aiming his bolter. He had caught a glancing blow to the side of his head and his face streamed with blood
'Not good, captain!' he replied. 'We've held them this long, but we won't hold another attack. There's too many of them and that Titan is going to blow us away any second.'
Tarvitz nodded and risked a glance through a shattered loophole to the ground far below, feeling his hate for these traitors, warriors for whom notions of honour and loyalty were non-existent, swell as he saw the multitude of bodies sprawled around the palace. He knew these dead warriors, having led them in battle these last few months and more than anything, he knew what they represented.
They were the galaxy's best soldiers, the saviours of the human race and the chosen of the Emperor. Their lives of heroic service and sacrifice had been ended by brute treachery and he had never felt so helpless.
'No,' he said, as resolve filled him. 'No, we will not falter.'
Tarvitz met Raetherin's eyes and said. 'The Titan is going to hit the same corner of the temple again, higher up, and then the traitors are going to storm us. Get the men back and make ready for the assault.'
He knew the traitors were just waiting for the temple to fall so they could storm in and kill the loyalists at their leisure. This was not just a battle; it was the Warmaster demonstrating his superiority.
Massive caliber gunfire thundered from the Dies Irae, an awesome storm of fire and death that smashed the plaza outside the temple, blasting apart loyalists in great columns of fire.
Infernal heat battered against the temple, and a hot gale blew through the gallery.
'Is that the best you've got?' he yelled in anger. 'You'll never kill us all!'
His warriors looked at him with savage light in their eyes. The words had sounded hollow in his ears, spoken out of rage rather than bravado, but he saw the effect it had and smiled, remembering that he had a duty to these men.
He had a duty to make their last moments mean something.
Suddenly, the air ripped apart as the Titan's plasma gun fired and white heat filled the gallery, throwing Tarvitz to the floor. Molten fragments of stone sprayed him and warriors fell, broken and burning around him. Blinded and deafened, Tarvitz dragged himself away from the destruction. Hot air boomed back into the vacuum blasted by the plasma and it was like a burning wind of destruction come to scour the loyalists from the face of Isstvan III.
He rolled onto his back, seeing that the bolt had ripped right through the temple roof, leaving a huge glowing-edged hole, like a monstrous bite mark, through one corner of the temple. Fully a third of the temple's mass had collapsed in a great rockslide of liquefied stone, flooding out like a long tongue of jade.
Tarvitz tried to shake the ringing from his ears and forced his eyes to focus.
Through the miasma of heat, he could hear a war-cry arise from the enemy warriors.
A similar clamour rose from the other side of the temple, where the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children were arrayed among the ruins of the palace.
The attack was coming.
LOKEN DROPPED TO his knees in horror at the sight of Torgaddon's head parting from his shoulders. The blood fountained slowly, the silver sheen of the sword wreathed in a spray of red.
He screamed his friend's name, watching as his body crashed to the floor of the stage and smashed the wooden lectern to splinters as it fell. His eyes met those of Horus Aximand and he saw a sorrow that matched his own echoed in this brother's eyes.
His choler surged, hot and urgent, but his anger was not directed at Horus Aximand, but at the warrior who pulled himself from the rubble behind him. He turned and forced himself to his feet, seeing Abaddon pulling himself from under the collapsed portico. The first captain had extricated himself from beneath slabs of marble that would have crushed even an armoured Astartes, but he was still trapped and immobile from the waist down.
Loken gave vent to an animal cry of loss and rage and ran towards Abaddon. He leapt, driving a knee down onto Abaddon's arm and pinning it with all his weight and strength to the rubble. Abaddon's free hand reached up and grabbed Loken's wrist as Loken drove his chainsword towards Abaddon's face.
The two warriors froze, locked face to face in a battle that would determine who lived and who died. Loken gritted his teeth and forced his arm down against Abaddon's grip.
Abaddon looked into Loken's face and saw the hatred and loss there.
'There's hope for you yet, Loken,' he snarled.
Loken forced the roaring point of the sword down with more strength than he thought could ever inhabit one body. The betrayal of the Astartes - their very essence - flashed through Loken's mind and he found the target of his hatred embodied in Abaddon's violent features.
The chainblade's teeth whirred. Abaddon forced the point down and it ripped into his breastplate. Sparks sprayed as Loken pushed the point onwards, through thick layers of ceramite. The sword juddered, but Loken kept it true.
He knew where it would break through, straight through the bone shield that protected Abaddon's chest cavity and then into his heart.
Even as he savoured the idea of Abaddon's death, the first captain smiled and pushed his hand upwards. Astartes battle plate enhanced a warrior's strength, but Terminator armour boosted it to levels beyond belief, and Abaddon called upon that power to dislodge Loken.
Abaddon surged upwards from the rubble with a roar of anger and slammed his energized fist into Loken's chest. His armour cracked open and the bone shield protecting his own chest cavity shattered into fragments. He staggered away from Abaddon, managing to keep his feet for a few seconds before his legs gave out and he collapsed to his knees, blood dribbling from his cracked lips in bloody ropes.
Abaddon towered over him and Loken watched numbly as Horus Aximand joined him. Abaddon's eyes were filled with triumph, Aximand's with regret. Abaddon took the bloody sword from Aximand's hand with a smile. 'This killed Torgaddon and it seems only fitting that I use it to kill you.'
The first captain raised the sword and said, 'You had your chance, Loken. Think about that while you die.'
Loken met Abaddon's unforgiving gaze, seeing the madness that lurked behind his eyes like a mob of angry daemons, and waited for death.
But before the blow landed, the parliament building exploded as something vast and colossal, like a primal god of war bestriding the world smashed through the back wall. Loken had a fleeting glimpse of a monstrous iron foot, easily the width of the building itself crashing through the stonework and demolishing the building as it went.
He looked up in time to see a mighty red god, towering and immense striding through the remains of the Choral City, its battlements bristling with weapons and its mighty head twisted in a snarl of merciless anger.
Rubble and debris cascaded from the roof as the Dies Irae smashed the parliament building into a splintered ruin of crushed rock, and Loken smiled as the building collapsed around him.
Tremendous impacts smashed the marble floor and the noise of the building's destruction was like the sweetest music he had ever heard, as he felt the world go black around him.
SAUL TARVITZ LOOKED around him at the hundred Space Marines crammed into the tiny square of cover that was all that remained of the Warsingers' temple. They had sat awaiting the final attack of the traitors for what had seemed like an age, but had been no more than thirty minutes.
'Why don't they attack?' asked Nero Vipus, one of the few Luna Wolves still alive.
'I don't know,' said Tarvitz, 'but whatever the reason I'm thankful for it.'
Vipus nodded, his face lined with a sadness that had nothing to do with the final battles of the Precentor's Palace.
'Still no word from Garviel or Tarik?' asked Tarvitz, already knowing the answer.
'No,' said Vipus, 'nothing.'
'I'm sorry, my friend.'
Vipus shook his head. 'No, I won't mourn them, not yet. They might have succeeded.'
Tarvitz said nothing, leaving the warrior to his dream and turned his attention once again to the terrifying scale of the Warmaster's army. Ten thousand traitors stood im |
d, his face lined with a sadness that had nothing to do with the final battles of the Precentor's Palace.
'Still no word from Garviel or Tarik?' asked Tarvitz, already knowing the answer.
'No,' said Vipus, 'nothing.'
'I'm sorry, my friend.'
Vipus shook his head. 'No, I won't mourn them, not yet. They might have succeeded.'
Tarvitz said nothing, leaving the warrior to his dream and turned his attention once again to the terrifying scale of the Warmaster's army. Ten thousand traitors stood immobile in the ruins of the Choral City. World Eaters chanted alongside Emperor's Children while the Sons of Horus and the Death Guard waited in long firing lines.
The colossal form of the Dies Irae had thankfully stopped firing, the monstrous Titan marching to tower over the Sirenhold like a brazen fortress.
'They want to make sure we're beaten,' said Tarvitz, 'to plant a flag on our corpses.'
'Yes,' agreed Vipus, 'but we gave them the fight of their lives did we not?'
'That we did,' said Tarvitz, 'that we did, and even once we're gone, Garro will tell the Legions of what they've done here. The Emperor will send an army bigger than anything the Great Crusade has ever seen.'
Vipus looked out over the Warmaster's army and said, 'He'll have to.'
ABADDON SURVEYED THE ruins of the parliament house, its once magnificent structure a heaped pile of shattered stone. His face bled from a dozen cuts and his skin was an ugly, bruised purple, but he was alive.
Beside him, Horus Aximand slumped against a ruined statue, his breathing labored and his shoulder twisted at an unnatural angle. Abaddon had pulled them both from the wreckage of the building, but looking at Aximand's downcast face, he knew that they had not escaped without scars of a different kind.
But it was done. Loken and Torgaddon were dead.
He had thought to feel savage joy at the idea, but instead he felt only emptiness, a strange void that yawned in his soul like a vessel that could never be filled.
Abaddon dismissed the thought and spoke into the vox. 'Warmaster,' he said, 'it is over.'
'What have we done, Ezekyle?' whispered Aximand.
'What needed to be done,' said Abaddon. 'The Warmaster ordered it and we obeyed.'
'They were our brothers,' said Aximand and Abaddon was astonished to find tears spilling down his brother's cheeks.
'They were traitors to the Warmaster, let that be an end to it.'
Aximand nodded, but Abaddon could see the seed of doubt take root in his expression.
He lifted Aximand and supported him as they made their way towards the waiting stormbird that would take them from this cursed place and back to the Vengeful Spirit.
The traitors within the Mournival were dead, but he had not forgotten the look of regret he had seen on Aximand's face.
Horus Aximand would need watching, Abaddon decided.
THE VIEWSCREEN OF the strategium displayed the blackened, barren rock of Isstvan V.
Where Isstvan III had once been rich and verdant, Isstvan V had always been a mass of tangled igneous rock where no life thrived. Once there had been life, but that had been aeons ago, and its only remnants were scattered basalt cities and fortifications. The people of the Choral City had thought these ruins were home to the evil gods of their religion, who waited there plotting revenge.
Perhaps they were right, mused Horus, thinking of Fulgrim and his complement of Emperor's Children who were preparing the way for the next phase of the plan.
Isstvan III had been the prologue, but Isstvan V would be the most decisive battle the galaxy had ever seen. The thought made Horus smile as he looked up to see Maloghurst limping painfully towards his throne.
'What news, Mal?' asked Horus. 'Have all surface units returned to their posts?'
'I have just heard from the Conqueror,' nodded Maloghurst. 'Angron has returned. He is the last.'
Horus turned back to the gnarled globe of Isstvan V and said, 'Good. It is no surprise to me that he should be the last to quit the battlefield. So what is the butcher's bill?'
'We lost a great many in the landings and more than a few in the palace,' replied Maloghurst. 'The Emperor's Children and the Death Guard were similarly mauled. The World Eaters lost the most. They are barely above half strength.'
'You do not think this battle was wise,' said Horus. 'You cannot hide that from me, Mal.'
'The battle was costly,' averred Maloghurst, 'and it could have been shortened. If efforts had been made to withdraw the Legions before the siege developed then lives and time could have been saved. We do not have an infinite number of Astartes and we certainly do not have infinite time. I do not believe there was any great victory to be won here.'
'You see only the physical cost, Mal,' said Horus. 'You do not see the psychological gains we have made. Abaddon was blooded, the real threats among the rebels have been eliminated and the World Eaters have been brought to a point where they cannot turn back. If there was ever any doubt as to whether this Crusade would succeed, it has been banished by what I have achieved on Isstvan III.'
'Then what are your orders?' asked Maloghurst.
Horus turned back to the viewscreen and said, 'We have tarried here too long and it is time to move onwards. You are right that I allowed myself to be drawn into a war that we did not have time to fight, but I will rectify that error.'
'Warmaster?'
'Bomb the city,' said Horus. 'Wipe it off the face of the planet.'
LOKEN COULDN'T MOVE his legs. Every heartbeat was agony in his lungs as the muscles of his chest ground against splinters of bone. He coughed up clots of blood with every breath and he was sure that each one would be his last as the will to live seeped from his body.
Through a crack in the rubble pinning him to the ground, Loken could see the dark grey sky. He saw streaks of fire dropping through the clouds and closed his eyes as he realized that they were the first salvoes of an orbital bombardment.
Death was raining down on the Choral City for the second time, but this time it wouldn't be anything as exotic as a virus. High explosives would bring the city down and put a final, terrible exclamation mark at the end of the Battle of Isstvan III.
Such a display was typical of the Warmaster.
It was a final epitaph that would leave no one in any doubt as to who had won.
The first orange blooms of fire burst over the city. The ground shook. Buildings collapsed in waves of fire and the streets boiled with flame once more.
The ground shuddered as though in the grip of an earthquake and Loken felt his prison of debris shift. Hard spikes of pain buffeted him as flames burst across the remains of the parliament building.
Then darkness fell at last, and Loken felt nothing else.
A HUNDRED OF Tarvitz's loyalists remained. They were the only survivors of their glorious last stand, and he had gathered them in the remains of the Warsingers' Temple - Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, and even a few lost-looking World Eaters. Tarvitz noticed that there were no Death Guard in their numbers, thinking that perhaps a few had survived Mortarion's scouring of the trenches, but knowing that they might as well have been on the other side of Isstvan III.
This was the end. They all knew it, but none of them gave voice to that fact.
He knew all their names now. Before, they had just been grime-streaked faces among the endless days and nights of battle, but now they were brothers, men he would die with in honour.
Flashes of explosions bloomed in the city's north. Shooting stars punched through the dark clouds overhead, scorching holes through which the glimmering stars could be seen. The stars shone down on the Choral City in time to watch the city die.
'Did we hurt them, captain? asked Solathen. 'Did this mean anything?'
Tarvitz thought for a moment before replying.
'Yes,' he said, 'we hurt them here. They'll remember this.'
A bomb slammed into the Precentor's Palace, finally blasting what little remained of its great stone flower into flame and shards of granite. The loyalists did not throw themselves into cover or ran for shelter - there was little point.
The Warmaster was bombarding the city, and he was thorough.
He would not let them slip away a second time.
Towers of flame bloomed all across the palace, closing in on them with fiery inevitability.
The battle for the Choral City was over.
THE TEMPLE WAS nearly complete, its high, arched ceiling like a ribcage of black stone beneath which the officers of the new Crusade were gathered. Angron still fumed at the decision to leave Isstvan III before the destruction of the loyalists was complete, while Mortarion was silent and sullen, his Death Guard like a steel barrier between him and the rest of the gathering.
Lord Commander Eidolon, still smarting from the failures his Legion had committed in the eyes of the Warmaster, had several squads of Emperor's Children accompanying him, but his presence was not welcomed, merely tolerated.
Maloghurst, Abaddon and Aximand represented the Sons of Horus, and beside them stood Erebus. The Warmaster stood before the temple's altar, its four faces representing what Erebus called the four faces of the gods. Above him, a huge holographic image of Isstvan V dominated the temple.
An area known as the Urgall Depression was highlighted, a giant crater overlooked by the fortress that Fulgrim had prepared for the Warmaster's forces. Blue blips indicated likely landing sites, routes of attack and retreat. Horus had spent the last hour explaining the details of the operation to his commanders and he was coming to an end.
'At this very moment seven Legions are coming to destroy us. They will find us at Isstvan V and the battle will be great. But in truth it will not be a battle at all, for we have achieved much since last we gathered. Chaplain Erebus, enlighten us as to matters beyond Isstvan.'
'All goes well at Signum, my lord,' said Erebus stepping forward. New tattoos had been in |
and retreat. Horus had spent the last hour explaining the details of the operation to his commanders and he was coming to an end.
'At this very moment seven Legions are coming to destroy us. They will find us at Isstvan V and the battle will be great. But in truth it will not be a battle at all, for we have achieved much since last we gathered. Chaplain Erebus, enlighten us as to matters beyond Isstvan.'
'All goes well at Signum, my lord,' said Erebus stepping forward. New tattoos had been inked on his scalp, echoing the sigils carved into the stones of the temple.
'Sanguinius and the Blood Angels will not trouble us, and Kor Phaeron sends word that the Ultramarines muster at Calth. They suspect nothing and will not be in a position to lend their strength to the loyalist force. Our allies outnumber our enemies.'
'Then it is done,' said Horus. 'The backs of the Emperor's Legions will be broken at Isstvan V.'
'And what then?' asked Aximand.
A strange melancholy had settled upon Horus Aximand since the battles of the Choral City, and he saw Abaddon cast a wary glance in his brother's direction.
'When our trap is sprung?' demanded Aximand. 'The Emperor will still reign and the Imperium will still answer to him. After Isstvan V, what then?'
'Then, Little Horus?' said the Warmaster. 'Then we strike for Terra.'
PART ONE
THE BLINDED STAR
'If the sole trait these Astartes share in common with we mere mortal masses is their bond of brotherhood, then one must dare to ask the question - if that were lost to them, what would they become?'
- attributed to the remembrancer Ignace Karkasy
'We are the voice and the clarion call; We are tyrant's ruin and rival's fall.'
- from the battle mantra of the Dusk Raiders
'As with men so it is with silk; it is difficult to change their colours once they have been set.'
- attributed to the ancient Terran warlord Mo Zi
ONE
Assembly
A Fine Sword
Death Lord
IN THE VOID, the vessels gathered. Shifting gently in the silent darkness, the crenellated hulls and great ornate shapes appeared as a congregation of Gothic edifices, cathedral-wrought in their complexity, drifting as if torn from the surface of worlds and carved into warships. Great sculpted bows filigreed into arrow points turned, stately and lethal, to face into the dark on a uniform heading. Torches burned on some, in apparent defiance of the airless vacuum. Plasma fires trailed white-orange streams of turbulent gas from chimneys along the kilometres of gunmetal hulls. These beacons were lit only when conflict was in the moment. The flares of wasteful, daring heat they generated were signs to the enemy.
We bring the light of illumination to you.
The craft that rode at the head of the flotilla was cut from steel the shade of a stormy sky, with a prow sheathed in dark ocean green. It moved as a slow dagger might in the hand of a patient killer, inescapable, inexorable. It bore little in the way of ornament. The ship's only decorations were martial in nature, etchings on the plough-blade bow in letters the height of a man, long lines of text that recalled an age of battles fought, worlds visited, opponents lain to wreckage. Her only adornments of any note were two-fold: a golden spread eagle with two heads across the face of the flying bridge and a great icon made of heavy nickel-iron ore, a single stone skull set inside a hollow steel ring in the shape of a star, at the very lip of the spiked blade, watchful and threatening.
More ships fell into line behind her, taking up a formation that mirrored the spear tip battle-patterns of the warriors that were her payload. In echo of the unbreakable resolve of those fighters, the warship proudly bore a name in High Gothic script across her iron hull: Endurance.
Behind her came more of her kind, ranging in class and size both larger and smaller: the Indomitable Will, Barbarus's Sting, Lord of Hyrus, Terminus Est, Undying, Spectre of Death and others.
This was the fleet that gathered beyond the umbra of the sun Iota Horologii, in order to bring the Great Crusade and the will of the Emperor of Man to one of the gargantuan cylinder worlds of the jorgall. Carried in their thousands aboard the ships that served their Legion, the instruments of that will were to be the Astartes of the XIV Legion, the Death Guard.
KALEB ARIN MOVED through the corridors of the Endurance in a swift dance of motion, holding his heavy cloth-wrapped burden to his chest. Years of indentured service had bred in him a way of walking and behaving that rendered him virtually hidden in plain sight around the towering forms of the Astartes. He was adept at remaining beneath their notice. To this day, even with so many years of duty glittering in the dull rivets fixed to his collarbone, Kaleb had not lost the keen awe at being among them that had filled him from the moment he had bent his knee to the XIV Legion. The lines on his pale face and the grey-white of his hair showed his age, but still he carried himself with the vitality of a man much younger. The strength of his conviction - and of other, more privately held ones - had carried him on in willing, unflinching servitude.
There were few men in the galaxy, he reflected, who could be as content as he was. The truth that never left him was as clear to him now as it had been decades ago, when he had stood beneath a weeping sky of toxic storm clouds and accepted his own limitations, his own failures. Those who continued to strive for what they could never reach, those who punished themselves for falling short of the dizzy heights they would never reach, they were the souls who had no peace in their lives. Kaleb was not like them. Kaleb understood his place in the scheme of things. He knew where he was supposed to be and what it was he was supposed to be doing. His place was here, now, not to question, not to strive, only to do.
Still, he felt pride at that. What men, he wondered, could hope to walk where he walked, among demigods cut from the flesh of the Emperor Himself? The housecarl never ceased to marvel at them. He kept to the edges of the corridors, skirting the broad warriors as they went about their preparations for the engagement.
The Astartes were statues come to life, great myths in stone that had stepped off their plinths to stride about him. They walked in their marble-coloured armour with green trim and gold flashing, some in the newer, smoother models of the wargear, others in the older iterations that were adorned with spiked studs and heavy-browed helms. These were impossible men, the living hands of the Imperium going to their deeds with shock and awe trailing around them like a cloak. They would never understand the manner in which mortal men looked upon them.
In his indenture, Kaleb knew that some among the Legion considered him with disrespect, as an irritant at best, worth no more than a drooling servitor at worst. This he accepted as his lot, with the same stoic character and dogged acceptance that was the way of the Death Guard. He would never fool himself into thinking that he was one of them - that chance had been offered to Kaleb and he had fallen short in the face of it - but he knew in his heart that he lived by the same code they did, and that his meagre, human frame would die for those ideals if it would serve the Imperium. Kaleb Arin, failed aspirant, housecarl and captain's equerry, was as satisfied with his life as any man could hope to be.
His load was awkward in its wrapping and he shifted it, cradling the object in a diagonal embrace across his chest. Not once had he dared to let it touch the deck or pass too close to an obstacle. It filled him with honour just to hold it, even through a thick cowl of forest green velvet. He found his way forward and up via the twisting and circuitous corridors, over the access ways that crossed the reeking, thunderous industry of the gun decks. He emerged on the upper tiers where the common naval crew were not allowed to venture, into the portions of the ship that were allotted exclusively to the Astartes. Should she wish to, even Endurance's captain would need to seek the permission of the ranking Death Guard to walk these halls.
Kaleb felt a ripple of satisfaction, and unconsciously ran a hand over his robes and the skull-shaped clasp at his collar. The device was as big as his palm and made from some kind of pewter. The mechanisms within it were as good as a certified passage paper to the machine-eyes and remote scrying systems on the ship. It was, after a fashion, his badge of office. Kaleb imagined that the sigil was as old as the warship, perhaps even as old as the Legion itself. It had been used by hundreds of serfs, who had died in service to the same role he now fulfilled, and he imagined it would outlast him as well.
Or perhaps not. The old ways were fading, and there were few among the senior battle-brothers of the Death Guard who deigned to keep the careworn traditions of the Legion alive. Times, and the Astartes, were changing. Kaleb had seen things alter, thanks to the juvenat treatments that had extended his life and given him a fragment of the longevity of his masters.
Forever close to the Astartes, but still held at a distance from them, he had seen the slow shifting of mood. It had begun in the months following the Emperor's decision to retire from the Great Crusade, from the time that he had bestowed the honour of Warmaster upon the noble primarch Horus. It continued still, all around him in silent motion, shifting slow and cold like glacial ice, and in his darker moments, Kaleb found himself wondering where the new and emerging way of things would take him and his beloved Legion.
The housecarl's face soured and he shook off the sudden attack of melancholy with a grimace. This was not the time to dwell on ephemeral futures and anxious worries of what might come to pass. It was the eve of a battle that would once again enforce humanity's right to strid |
inued still, all around him in silent motion, shifting slow and cold like glacial ice, and in his darker moments, Kaleb found himself wondering where the new and emerging way of things would take him and his beloved Legion.
The housecarl's face soured and he shook off the sudden attack of melancholy with a grimace. This was not the time to dwell on ephemeral futures and anxious worries of what might come to pass. It was the eve of a battle that would once again enforce humanity's right to stride the stars unfettered and unafraid.
As he approached the armoury chamber, he glanced out of a reinforced porthole and saw stars. Kaleb wondered which one was the jorgall colony world, and if the xenos had any inkling of the storm about to break upon them.
NATHANIEL GARRO RAISED Libertas to his eye line and sighted along the length of the blade. The heavy, dense metal of the sword shimmered in the chamber's blue light, a wave of rainbow reflections racing away from him along the edge as he tilted it down. There were no imperfections visible in the crystalline matrix of the monosteel. Garro didn't look back at his housecarl, where the man waited in a half bow. 'This is good work.' He gestured for the man to stand. 'I'm pleased.'
Kaleb gathered the velvet cloth in his hands. 'It's my understanding that the servitor who attended your weapon was a machine-smith or a blade maker in its previous life. Some elements of its original artistry must remain.'
'Just so.' Garro gave Libertas a few practice swings, moving swiftly and easily in the confines of his Mark IV power armour. He let the smallest hint of a smile creep out across his gaunt face. The nicks that the blade had suffered during the Legion's pacification of the Carinea moons had troubled him, the result of a single mis-blow on his part that cut through an iron pillar instead of flesh. It was good to have his favourite weapon in his hands once more. The substantial mass of the broadsword completed him, and the idea of venturing into combat without it had troubled Garro on some level. He would not allow himself to voice words like 'luck' and 'fate' except in mocking humour, and yet without Libertas in his scabbard he had to confess he felt somehow... less protected.
The Astartes caught sight of his own reflection in the polished metal: old eyes in a face that, despite its oft weary countenance, seemed too young for them; a head, hairless and patterned with pale scars. A patrician aspect, showing its roots from the warrior dynasties of ancient Terra, pale-skinned, but without the pallidity of his brother Death Guard who hailed from cold and lethal Barbarus. Garro brought the blade up in salute, and slid Libertas back into the scabbard on his belt.
He glanced at Kaleb. 'It predates even me, did you know that? So I have been told, some elements of the weapon were fabricated on Old Earth before the Age of Strife.'
The housecarl nodded. 'Then, master, I would say it is fitting that a Terran-born son wields it now.'
'All that matters is that it turns in the Emperor's service,' Garro replied, clasping his gauntlets together.
Kaleb opened his mouth to respond, but then a motion at the chamber door caught his eye and immediately Garro's housecarl sank again into an obeisant bow.
'Such a fine sword,' came a voice and the Astartes turned to watch the approach of a pair of his brethren. As the figures came closer, he resisted the urge to smile wryly.
'A pity,' the speaker continued, 'that it cannot be placed in the care of a younger, more vigorous warrior.'
Garro eyed the man who had spoken. In the fashion of many of the Death Guard's number, the new arrival's scalp was shaven, but unlike the majority he sported a tail of hair at the back of his head, in black and grey streaks that dangled to his shoulders. His face was craggy and broken, but the eyes set there had sardonic wit in them.
'The folly of youth,' Garro replied, without weight. 'Are you sure you could lift it, Temeter? Perhaps you might need old Hakur there to help you.' He gestured to the second man, a wiry figure with thin features and a single augmetic eye.
Rough humour emerged in a scattering of dry laughter. 'Forgive me, captain,' replied Temeter, 'I only thought to exchange it for something that would better suit you... say, a walking stick?'
Garro made an exaggerated show of thinking over the other man's proposal. 'Perhaps you are right, but how could I hand my sword to someone whose breath still smells of his mother's milk?'
The laughter echoed through the chamber and Temeter raised his hands in mock defeat. 'I have no recourse but to bow before our great battle-captain's age and venerable experience.'
Garro stepped forward and clasped the other man's armoured gauntlet in a firm grip. 'Ullis Temeter, you war dog. You only have a few years less than me on your clock!'
'Yes, but they make all the difference. Anyway, it's not about the years, it's the quality that counts.'
At Temeter's side, the other Death Guard kept a dour face. 'Then I'd venture Captain Temeter is sadly lacking.'
'Don't give him any support,' Andus replied to Temeter. 'Nathaniel has enough barbs without you helping him!'
'Merely assisting the commander of my company, as any good sergeant should,' said the veteran with a nod. Someone who did not know Andus Hakur as well as his captain did might have thought the veteran's insulting turn against Temeter to be honest, and indeed Garro heard a sharp intake of breath from his housecarl at the words; but then Hakur's manner was dry to the point of aridity.
For his part, Captain Temeter laughed off the comment. Both he and Garro had served with the older warrior in the years before they had risen to lead their respective companies. It was a point of mild dispute between them that Garro had persuaded the old Astartes to join his command squad over Temeter's.
Garro returned Hakur's nod and drew Temeter aside. 'I hadn't expected to see you until after the assembly on the Terminus Est. That's why I was here.' He patted the sword's pommel. 'I didn't want to step aboard Typhon's warship without this.'
Temeter flicked a questioning glance at the housecarl, then smiled slightly. 'Aye, that's not a vessel to be unprotected aboard, is it? So, then, I take it you haven't heard the news?'
Garro gave his old comrade a sideways look. 'What news, Ullis? Come on, don't play to the drama of it, speak.'
Temeter lowered his voice. 'The esteemed master of the First Great Company, Captain Calas Typhon, has stepped down from command of the jorgall assault. Someone else is going to lead us.'
'Who?' Garro insisted. 'Typhon wouldn't stand down for any Astartes. His pride would never allow it.'
'You're not wrong,' continued Temeter, 'he wouldn't stand down for any Astartes.'
The sudden realization hit Garro like a wash of ice. 'Then, you mean...'
'The primarch is here, Nathaniel. Mortarion himself has decided to take part in this engagement. He's brought the timetable forward.'
'The primarch?' The words slipped out of Kaleb's mouth in a whisper, trepidation and awe in every syllable.
Temeter gave him a look, as if he were noticing Garro's helot for the first time. 'Indeed, little man. He walks the decks of Endurance as I speak.'
Kaleb dropped to his knees and made the sign of the aquila, his hands visibly trembling.
In spite of himself, his master's throat went dry. Until Temeter's announcement, Garro, like the majority of his Legion, had believed that the gaunt leader of the Death Guard was engaged elsewhere, on a mission of some import for the Warmaster himself. This sudden and secretive arrival left him reeling. To know that Mortarion would ride at their spear tip against the jorgall, he felt a mixture of elation and disquiet. 'When are we to assemble?' he asked, finding his voice.
Temeter smiled broadly. He was enjoying the normally stoic Garro's moment of discomfort with mild glee. 'Right now, old friend. I'm here to summon you to the conclave.' He leaned in closer, his words hushed and conspiratorial. 'And I should warn you, the primarch's brought some interesting company with him.'
THE ASSEMBLY HALL was an unremarkable space. It was nothing more than a void in the Endurances forward hull, rectangular in aspect, open at the far end to the stars through two oval panes of armoured glass holding out the killing vacuum. There were louvered shutters half-closed across the windows, casting patterns of dim white light in bars where the glow from a nearby nebula reached the vessel.
The ceiling was an arch, formed from the primary spars of the warship's iron ribcage where they met and meshed in steel-riveted plate. There were no chairs or places where one might rest. There was no use for them. This was not a hall in which lengthy debate and plots would be hatched, but a place where blunt orders would be given, directives made and battle plans drawn in swift order. The only adornments were a few combat banners hanging down from the metal beams.
The room was littered with shadows. Alcoves formed from the spaces between the girder ribs went deep and ink-black. Illumination fell in pools, tuned to the same yellow-white of high sun on Barbarus. In the centre of the chamber, a hololithic tank turned on a lazy axis, a ghostly cube of blue drifting there. Mechanicum adepts ticked and skittered around the disc-shaped projector device below it, moving in orbits around each other, but never straying more than a hand's length away. Perhaps, Garro mused, they were afraid to venture out among the assembled warriors.
The battle-captain cast around, taking in the faces of ranking naval officers and designated representatives from all of the starships in the flotilla. Endurance's commander, a whipcord woman with a severe face, caught his eye and gave him a respectful nod. Garro returned the greeting and moved past her. At his shoulder, Temeter whispered. 'Where's Grulgor?'
'There,' Garro indicated with the j |
nd's length away. Perhaps, Garro mused, they were afraid to venture out among the assembled warriors.
The battle-captain cast around, taking in the faces of ranking naval officers and designated representatives from all of the starships in the flotilla. Endurance's commander, a whipcord woman with a severe face, caught his eye and gave him a respectful nod. Garro returned the greeting and moved past her. At his shoulder, Temeter whispered. 'Where's Grulgor?'
'There,' Garro indicated with the jut of his chin, 'with Typhon.'
'Ah,' Temeter said sagely, 'I should not be surprised.'
The captains of the Death Guard's First and Second Companies were in close consultation, the murmur of their words pitched low enough so that even the acute senses of another Astartes were not enough to divine their meaning. Garro saw that Grulgor had noticed their arrival, and, as was his usual manner, he ignored it, despite the lapse in protocol a failure to greet them represented.
'He's never going to be a friend to you, is he?' ventured Temeter, who saw it too. 'Not even for a moment.'
Garro gave the slightest of shrugs. 'It's not something I dwell on. We don't rise to our ranks because of how well-liked we are. This is a crusade we are winning, not a popularity contest.'
Temeter sniffed. 'Speak for yourself. I am extremely popular.'
'I have no doubt you believe that.'
Typhon and Grulgor abruptly disengaged and turned to meet their cohorts as they came closer. The First Captain of the Death Guard, master of the prime company and right hand of the primarch, was a formidable sight in his iron-hued Terminator armour. A dark tail of hair spilled over his shoulders and the man's bearded face was framed by the heavy square hood of the wargear. His helmet nestled in the crook of his arm, a single horn protruding from the brow. Whatever emotions dwelt inside him were well masked, but not so well that the lines of annoyance around his eyes could be completely hidden.
'Temeter. Garro.' Typhon gave both men a level, measuring stare, his voice a low growl.
At once the easy air that Temeter had brought with him was gone, evaporating beneath the first captain's piercing gaze. Garro could only wonder at the anger behind those dark eyes, still smarting at the slight of being usurped from leading the jorgall attack at the eleventh hour.
'Grulgor and I were discussing the changes in the engagement plan,' Typhon continued.
'Changes?' repeated Temeter. 'I was not aware-'
'You are being made aware,' said Grulgor, with a hint of a sneer. Despite having been born on a world on the opposite side of the galaxy, Ignatius Grulgor shared a similar bearing and physicality with Garro, even down to the hairless head and a collection of trophy scars; but where Garro was stoic and metered, Grulgor was forever on the edge of arrogance, snarling instead of speaking, judgemental instead of considering. 'The Fourth Company is to be re-tasked, to conduct boarding operations among the bottle world's picket force.'
Temeter bowed, hiding the irritation that Garro was sure his comrade felt at being denied a share of the mission's greater glories. 'As the primarch wills.' He looked up and met Grulgor's gaze. 'Thank you for preparing me, captain,'
'Commander,' Grulgor spat out the word. 'You will address me by my rank, Captain Temeter.'
Temeter frowned. 'My error, commander, of course. The traditions sometimes slip my mind when my thoughts are otherwise occupied,'
Garro watched Grulgor's jaw harden. Like all of the Legions Astartes, they had quirks and customs that were unique to them. The Death Guard differed from many of their brother Legions in the manner of the command structure and ranking, for instance. Tradition had it that the XIV would never number more than seven great companies, although those divisions held far more men than those of other Astartes cohorts like the Space Wolves or the Blood Angels; and while many Legions had the tradition of giving the honorific of 'first captain' to the commander of the prime company, the Death Guard also held two more privileged titles, to be bestowed upon the leaders of the Second and Seventh Companies respectively. Thus, although they held no actual seniority over one another, Grulgor could carry the rank of 'commander' if he so wished, just as Garro was known as 'battle-captain'. It was Garro's understanding that his particular honorific dated back to the Wars of Unification, to a moment when the mark of distinction had been handed to a XIV officer by the Emperor himself. He was proud to bear it all these centuries later.
'Our traditions are what make us who we are,' Garro offered quietly. 'It's right and correct that we hold to them.'
'In moderation, perhaps,' Typhon corrected. 'We should not allow ourselves to become hidebound by rules from a past that is dust to us now.'
'Indeed,' added Grulgor.
'Ah,' said Temeter. 'So, Ignatius, you hold on to tradition with one hand and push it away with the other?'
'The old ways are right and correct so long as they serve a purpose,' Grulgor threw Garro a cold look. 'That pet helot you keep is "a tradition" and yet there is no point to it. There is a custom that has no value.'
'I beg to differ, commander,' Garro replied. 'The housecarl performs flawlessly as my equerry-'
Grulgor snorted. 'Huh. I had one of those once. I think I lost it on an ice moon somewhere. It froze to death, weak little thing.' He looked away. 'It smacks to me of sentiment, Garro.'
'As ever, Grulgor, I will give your comments the due attention they deserve,' said Garro. He broke off as a figure in gold caught his eye moving through a shaft of light.
Temeter saw where Garro was looking and tapped twice on the shoulder plate of his armour. 'I told you Mortarion had brought company.'
KALEB BUSIED HIMSELF with the sword cloth, folding the green velvet mantle into a neat square. In the alcove of the arming pit, Captain Garro's weapons and battle equipment were arrayed around him on hooks and wire-frame racks. Upon one wall, resting on steel spikes, lay the heavy silver ingot of his master's bolter. It was polished to a matt sheen, the brass detail glittering under the wan light of biolume glow-globes.
The housecarl replaced the cloth and wrung his hands, thinking. It was hard for him to maintain a clear focus, with the idea gnawing at his mind that the primarch was only a few tiers above him, up on the high decks. Kaleb looked up at the steel ceiling and imagined what he might see if the Endurance were made of glass. Would Mortarion radiate dark and cold as some said he did? Would it be possible for a mere man such as himself to actually look the Death Lord in the eye, and not feel his heart stop in his chest? The serf took a deep breath to steady his nerve. It was a lot for him to handle, and the distraction made performing his normal tasks difficult. Mortarion was a son of the Emperor Himself, and the Emperor... the Emperor was...
'Kaleb,'
He turned to face Hakur. The seasoned veteran was one of the few Astartes who called the housecarl by his given name. 'Yes, lord?'
'Mind your work.' He nodded at the ceiling, at the place where Kaleb had been staring. 'Sees through steel, the primarch does.'
The serf managed a weak grin and bowed, gathering up a cleaning cloth and a tin of waxy polish. Under Hakur's neutral gaze he moved to the centre of the alcove and set to work on the heavy ceramite and brass cuirass that rested there. This was a ceremonial piece that Garro wore only in combat or upon formal occasions. In tandem with the honour-rank of battle-captain, the decorative over-sheath sported an eagle, wings spread and beak arched, sculpted from brass as if about to take flight from the chest plate. Similarly, the rear of the cuirass had a second eagle as a head-guard that emerged from the shoulders when worn over the backpack of Astartes armour.
What made this piece unique was that its eagles differed from the Emperor's aquila. While the symbol of the Imperium of Man had two heads, one blinded to look at the past, one sighted to see to the future, the battle-captain's eagles were singular. Kaleb fancied this meant that they only saw into the time yet to pass, that perhaps they were a kind of charm that could know the advance of a killing shot or deadly blade before it arrived. Once he had voiced that thought aloud and received derision and scorn from Garro's men. Such thoughts, Sergeant Hakur had later said, were superstitions that had no place on a ship of the Emperor's Crusade. 'Ours is a war to dispel fable and falsehood with the cold light of truth, not to propagate myth.' The veteran had tapped the eagles with a finger. 'These are inanimate brass and no more, just as we are all flesh and bone.'
Still, Kaleb's hand could not help but drift to a brass icon on a chain around his neck, hidden inside the folds of his tunic where none could see it.
THE FIGURE WAS most assuredly female, lithe and poised, clad in a shimmering snakeskin over-suit of dense chainmail and a sweep of golden armour plate that resembled a bodice. A half-mask lay open at her neck, revealing an elegant face. Garro sometimes found it hard to determine the age of non-Astartes, but he estimated she could be no more than thirty solar years. Purple-black hair rose in a topknot from a seamless scalp, bare but for a blood-red aquila tattoo. She was quite beautiful, but what locked his attention on her was the way she moved noiselessly across the iron decks of the chamber. Had he not seen her emerge from the shadows, the Astartes might have thought the woman to be a holo-ghost, some finely detailed image cast from the projector.
'Amendera Kendel,' noted Typhon, with a hint of distaste. 'A witchseeker.'
Temeter nodded. 'From the Storm Dagger cadre. She is here with a deputation of the Silent Sisterhood, apparently on the orders of the Sigillite himself.'
Grulgor's lip curled. 'There are no psykers here. What purpose |
elessly across the iron decks of the chamber. Had he not seen her emerge from the shadows, the Astartes might have thought the woman to be a holo-ghost, some finely detailed image cast from the projector.
'Amendera Kendel,' noted Typhon, with a hint of distaste. 'A witchseeker.'
Temeter nodded. 'From the Storm Dagger cadre. She is here with a deputation of the Silent Sisterhood, apparently on the orders of the Sigillite himself.'
Grulgor's lip curled. 'There are no psykers here. What purpose could those women serve in the coming battle?'
'The Regent of Terra must have his reasons,' Typhon suggested, but his tone made it clear he thought little of what they might be.
Garro watched the witchseeker orbit the room. Her tradecraft was commendable. She moved in stealth even as she was obvious to the eye, passing around the naval officers in a way that appeared to be random, even as Garro's trained sense understood it was not.
Kendel was observing. She was cataloguing the reactions of the people in the assembly hall, filing them away for later review. It made the Astartes think of a scout, surveying the land before a battle, seeking weak points and targets. He had never encountered a Sister of Silence before, only heard of their exploits in service to the Imperium.
Their name was well deserved, he considered. Kendel was silent, like the wind across a grave, and in her passing, he noticed that some would shiver without being aware of it, or become distracted for a moment. It was as if the witchseeker cast an invisible aura around herself that gave mortal men pause.
Garro watched her pass by the entrance to the assembly hall and his gaze was hooked by the shine of brass and steel upon two grand figures that stood either side of the hatch. Barrel-chested in highly artificed armour, taller than Typhon, the identical sentinels blocked the steel door with crossed battle-scythes, the signature weapon of the Death Guard's elite warriors. Only the few personally favoured by the primarch were permitted to carry such artifacts. They were known as manreapers, forged in echo of the common farmer's harvesting scythe that it was said Mortarion had fought with in his youth. The first captain wielded one, but Garro recognized these twin blades immediately.
'Deathshroud,' he whispered. These two Astartes were the personal honour guards of the primarch, fated never to reveal their faces to anyone but Mortarion, even to the end of their lives. So it was said, the warriors of the Deathshroud were chosen by the primarch from the rank and file men of the Legion in secret, and then listed as killed in action. They were his nameless guardians, never allowed to venture more than forty-nine paces from their lord's side. Garro felt a chill when he realized that he hadn't even been aware that the Deathshroud had entered the chamber.
'If they are here, then where is our master?' asked Grulgor.
A cold smile of understanding flickered over Typhon's lips. 'He has been here all along.'
At the far end of the chamber, a towering shadow detached itself from the dimness beside the oval windows. Steady footsteps brought silence to the room as they crossed the deck plates. With every other footfall there came a heavy metallic report as the base of an iron shaft tapped out the distance. Garro's muscles tensed as the sound made several of the common naval officers back away from the hololith.
In the dusty Terran legends that survived from the histories of nation states like Merica, Old Ursh and Oseania there was the myth of a walker in the darkness who came to claim the freshly dead, a skeletal individual, an incarnation that threshed souls from flesh as keenly as wheat in the fields. These were just stories, though, the speculations of the superstitious and fearful, and yet, here and now, a billion light-years from the birthplace of that folklore, the very mirror of that figure rose into the half-light aboard Endurance, tall and gaunt beneath a cloak as grey as sea-ice.
Mortarion halted and touched the deck plates with the hilt of his manreaper, the scythe as tall as the primarch and a head again. Only the Deathshroud stayed on their feet. Every other person in the room, human or Astartes, was on his knees. Mortarion's cloak parted as he raised his free hand, palm upwards. 'Rise,' he said.
The primarch's voice was low and firm, at odds with the ashen, hairless face that emerged from the heavy collar surrounding his throat. Wisps of white gas curled from the neck brace of Mortarion's wargear, captured philters of fumes from the air of Barbarus. Garro caught the scent of them and for an instant his sense memory took him back to the grim, clouded planet with its lethal skies.
The assemblage came to its feet, and still the primarch dominated the room. Beneath the grey cloak, he was a knight in shining brass and bare steel. The ornamental skull and star device of the Death Guard grimaced out from his breastplate and at his waist, level with the chest of a file Astartes, Garro saw the drum-shaped holster that carried the Lantern, a handcrafted energy pistol of unique Shenlongi design.
Mortarion's only other adornments were a string of globe-shaped censers in brass. These too contained elements from the poisonous high atmosphere of the primarch's adoptive home world. Garro had heard it said that Mortarion would sometimes sample them, like a connoisseur tasting fine wines, or by turns pitch them into battle as grenades to send an enemy choking and dying.
The battle-captain realized he had been holding in his breath and released it as Mortarion's amber eyes took in the room. Silence fell as his lord commander began to speak.
'XENOS.' PYR RAHL made the word into a curse without effort, drumming his fingers across the stubby barrel of his bolter. 'I wonder what colour these will bleed. White? Purple? Green?' He glanced around and ran a hand through the close-cut hair on his head. 'Come, who'll make a wager with me?'
'No one will, Pyr,' answered Hakur, shaking his head. 'We're all tired of your trivial gambling.' He threw a glance back to the arming pit where Garro's housecarl was hard at work.
'What currency is there to wager between us, anyway?' added Voyen, joining Hakur at the blade racks. The two veterans were quite unalike in physical aspect, Voyen ample in frame where Hakur was wiry, and yet they were together on most things that affected the squad. 'We're not swabs or soldiers grabbing over scrip and coinage!'
Rahl frowned. 'It's not a game of money, Apothecary, nothing as crude as that. Those things are just a way to keep score. We play for the right to be right.'
Solun Decius, the youngest member of the command squad, came closer, rubbing a towel over his face to wipe away the sweat from his exertions in the sparring cages. He had a hard look to him that seemed out of place on a youth of his age. His eyes were alight with energy barely held in check, enthused by the sudden possibilities of glory that the arrival of the primarch had brought. 'I'll take your wager, if it will quiet you.' Decius glanced at Hakur and Voyen, but his elders gave him no support. 'I'll say red, like the orks.'
Rahl sniffed. 'White as milk, like the megarachnid.'
'You are both wrong.' From behind Rahl, his face buried in a data-slate festooned with tactical maps, Tollen Sendek's flat monotone issued out. 'The blood of the jorgall is a dark crimson.' The warrior had a heavy brow and hooded eyes that gave him a permanently sleepy expression.
'And this knowledge is yours how?' demanded Decius.
Sendek waved the data-slate in the air. 'I am well-read, Solun. While you batter your chainsword's teeth blunt in the cages, I study the foe. These dissection texts of the Magos Biologis are fascinating.'
Decius snorted. 'All I need to know is how to kill them. Does your text tell you that, Tollen?'
Sendek gave a heavy nod. 'It does.'
'Well, come, come.' Voyen beckoned the dour Astartes to his feet. 'Don't keep such information to yourself.'
Sendek sighed and stood, his perpetually morose features lit by the glow of the data-slate's display. He tapped his chest. 'The jorgall favour mechanical enhancements to improve their physical form. They have some humanoid traits - a head, neck, eyes and mouth - but it appears their brains and central nervous systems are situated not here,' and he tapped his brow, 'but here.' Tollen's hand lay flat on his chest.
'To kill would need a heart shot, then?' Rahl noted, accepting a nod in return.
'Ah,' said Decius, 'like this?' In a flash, the Astartes had spun in place and drawn his bolter. A single round exploded from the muzzle and ripped into the torso of a dormant practice dummy less than a few metres from Garro's arming pit. The captain's housecarl flinched at the sound of the shot, drawing a tut from Hakur.
Decius turned away, amused with himself. Meric Voyen threw Hakur a look. 'Arrogant whelp. I don't understand what the captain sees in him.'
'I once said the same thing about you, Meric.'
'Speed and skill are nothing without control,' the Apothecary retorted tersely. 'Displays like that are better suited to fops like the Emperor's Children.'
The other man's words drew a thin smile from Hakur. 'We're all Astartes under the skin, brothers and kindred all.'
Voyen's humour dropped away suddenly. 'That, my brother, is as much a lie as it is the truth.'
IN THE HOLOLITH cube, the shape of the jorgalli construct became visible. It was a fat cylinder several kilometres long, bulbous at one end with drive clusters, thinning at the other to a stubby prow. Huge petal-shaped vanes coated with shimmering panels emerged from the stern of the thing, catching sunlight and bouncing it through massive windows as big as inland seas.
Mortarion gestured with a finger. 'A cylinder world. This one has twice the mass of the similar constructs found and eliminated in orbits around the planets Tasak Beta and Fallon, but unlike those, our target |
fat cylinder several kilometres long, bulbous at one end with drive clusters, thinning at the other to a stubby prow. Huge petal-shaped vanes coated with shimmering panels emerged from the stern of the thing, catching sunlight and bouncing it through massive windows as big as inland seas.
Mortarion gestured with a finger. 'A cylinder world. This one has twice the mass of the similar constructs found and eliminated in orbits around the planets Tasak Beta and Fallon, but unlike those, our target is the first jorgall craft to be found under power in deep space.' One of the adepts tickled switches with his worm-like mechadendrites and the image receded, revealing a halo of teardrop-shaped ships in close formation nearby.
'A substantial picket fleet travels ahead of the craft. Captain Temeter will lead the engagement to disrupt these ships and break their lines of communication.'
The primarch accepted a salute from Temeter. 'Elements of the First, Second and Seventh Great Companies will stand with me as I take the spear tip into the bottle itself. This battleground is suited to our unique talents. The jorgall breathe a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen with heavy concentrations of chlorine, a weak poison that our lungs will resist with little effort.'
As if to underline the point, Mortarion sniffed at a puff of gas from his half-mask. 'First Captain Typhon will be my support. Commander Grulgor will penetrate the drive cluster and take control of the cylinder's motive power centre. Battle-Captain Garro will neutralize the construct's hatcheries.'
Garro saluted firmly mirroring Grulgor and Typhon's gestures. He held off his disappointment at his assigned target, far down the cylinder from the primarch's attack point, and instead began to consider the first elements of his battle plan.
Mortarion hesitated a moment, and Garro could swear he heard the hint of a smile in the primarch's voice. 'As some of you have deduced, this fight will not be the Death Guard's alone. I have, on the request of Malcador the Sigillite, brought a cadre of investigators from the Divisio Astra Telepathica here, led by the Oblivion Knight Sister Amendera.' The primarch inclined his head and Garro saw the Sister of Silence bow low in return. She gestured in sign language, quick little motions of finger and wrist.
'The honoured Sisters will join us to seek out a psyker trace that has led to this bottle-world.'
Garro stiffened. Psykers? This was the first he had heard of such a threat on the jorgalli ship, and he noted that only Typhon did not seem surprised at such news.
'I trust that the full importance of this endeavor is impressed upon each of you,' continued the Death Lord, his low tones strong. 'These jorgall repeatedly enter our space in their generation ships, intent on spawning over worlds that belong to the Emperor. They must not be allowed to gain a foothold.' He turned away, his face disappearing into his cloak. 'In time, the Astartes will erase these creatures from humanity's skies, and today will be a step along that path.'
Garro and his battle-brothers saluted once more as Mortarion turned his back on them and moved away towards the welcoming shadows. They did not chorus in a battle cry or mark the moment with raised pronouncements. The primarch had spoken, and his was voice enough.
TWO
Assault
Brothers and Sisters
Message in a Bottle
THE THRUST OF the heavy assault boat's engines was a hammer to their bones, pressing the Astartes into the acceleration racks. Garro held his muscles tense against the powerful g-forces and let his gaze wander over the interior of the clamshell doors that formed the bow of the boarding ship. Intricate scrollwork spread across the inner face of the doors, charting the countless actions the craft had been involved in.
It was one of hundreds hurtling through the void at this moment, packed with men primed for war, each of them targeted on the jorgall world-ship with the unerring single-mindedness of a guided missile.
Through the pict-circuits laced into the lenses of his armour, Garro rapidly blink-clicked through the data available to him via his command level vox-net. There were feeds from the eye cameras of the squad leaders, quick scripts of telemetry from Voyen's medicae auspex and there, for a moment, a grainy, low resolution image from outside across the boat's serrated prow.
Garro dallied on that for a few seconds, watching the motion of the vast cylinder as they approached it. The hull wall of pearlescent metal grew larger. It was so huge that the curvature of it was hardly noticeable, and the only sign that they were actually closing on it was the slow crawl of detail as surface features became clearer: here, a cluster of spikes that might be antennae, there a bulbous turret spitting yellow tracer fire.
The captain felt no fear at the jorgall guns. The assault was moving at punishing speed beneath a cloak of electronic countermeasures, heat-baffle flare bursts and glittering clouds of metal chaff that would render sensors unintelligible. He was confident in Temeter's skills, certain that the captain of the Fourth had sent the picket fleet into disarray and robbed the xenos of any usable warning.
The wall was very close, the distance vanishing in moments. Garro was aware of other boats converging at the edges of the grayed-out image. Long-range sensors had determined that this portion of the cylinder's hull was thin, and so it would be here, some half a kilometre from the cylinder's mid-line, that the Death Guard would make their ingress. Garro let the link fade and gathered himself, switching over to the general vox channel. His voice echoed in the helms of every Astartes on the boat.
'Steel in your bones, brothers. Impact is imminent. I want a clean and fast deployment. I want it so sharp the Emperor himself would applaud its perfection!' He took a breath as the standby alert began to wail. 'Today the primarch leads us, and we will make him proud to do so! For Mortarion and Terra!'
'Mortarion and Terra!' Garro heard Hakur's rough baritone through the chorus of assent.
Decius's voice cut across the channel, brimming with zeal. 'Count the Seven!' he cried, yelling out the company's call to rally. 'Count the Seven!'
Garro joined in, but his words were abruptly shaken out of him as the assault boat's thick bow rammed into the hull of the jorgall cylinder. Piercing shrieks of rendered metal and escaping atmosphere thundered around the boat's thick fuselage as it drove itself deep, clawed tracks across its flanks biting and sparking to pull it through metres of chitinous armour plate. Turning and shifting, the boat's autonomic pilot brain deployed hydraulic barbs to stop the outgassing of air from blowing back into the void.
The juddering, screeching, ear-splitting ride seemed to go on forever then abruptly it stopped. The assault ship listed. Garro heard metal scrape on metal and then the trigger rune before him on the clamshell hatch flashed on. 'Ready on release!' he snapped.
The hatch blew open on explosive bolts and Garro had his bolter loose and in his hands, ready to kill anything that dared to come in, but it was a sudden flood of brackish blue water that smashed down into the boat, not an enemy defender. The liquid was icy, swirling rapidly around his legs and up to his stomach.
'Go!' Garro roared. The battle-captain was aware of his men moving behind him as he launched himself out of the assault craft. He plunged into the cobalt murk and burst back through the surface, turning around, getting his bearings.
It was a hundred-to-one chance. The assault had penetrated through the bottom of a shallow chemical lake and the dark hulls of the boats protruded from the sluggish liquid like the tips of jagged armoured fingers. Already the waters were icing over and freezing into blue-white halos where the cold kiss of space had followed the invaders in. Through his helmet's breath screen Garro drew a rough inhalation that tasted of metallic salts. Nearby, he saw Grulgor kick angrily away from his lander and snarl out a command.
There on the shore, pointing with his manreaper, was Mortarion. The sight of the primarch was enough to send Garro's blood racing, and he stormed forward through the shallows, his bolter held high. 'Count the Seven!' called the captain, and he did not need to look behind him to see the elements of his company follow in formation.
Garro advanced from the deployment point with Hakur's veteran squad at his side, joined by Decius and Sendek for support. Around them, the chaotic crash of gunfire and blades on blades rippled over the gentle landscape of the lakeshore. Hordes of Astartes met the xenos in deadly, furious conflict.
The alien force was quickly in disarray. Even in non-humans, Garro could sense the motion and shift in the character of a battalion when they lost their nerve. Groups broke apart and reformed, milling and confused, instead of drawing out and away in any semblance of order. Butchering them would not take too much of the Death Guard's energy.
It was clear the jorgalli had understood too late that the objects on a course towards their world-ship were not massive munitions but actually manned craft. The near-suicidal manner of such a boarding operation had shocked them and they were unprepared for the brutal fury of the Death Guard incursion. Their mistake had been compounded by errors in the deployment of their combatant enhancives. The jorgall cyborgs standing on the banks of the chlorine lagoon were massacred, their keening cries echoing over the shallow, sandy dunes surrounding the landing zone.
In the back of his mind, the battle-captain was already thinking ahead, considering how they would secure the breach point before the companies split to attend their individual objectives. Garro led his men in a thrust through a nest of spindly, whirling dervishes, fighting past sweeps of dull steel glaives and placing double-tap bolt |
rgall cyborgs standing on the banks of the chlorine lagoon were massacred, their keening cries echoing over the shallow, sandy dunes surrounding the landing zone.
In the back of his mind, the battle-captain was already thinking ahead, considering how they would secure the breach point before the companies split to attend their individual objectives. Garro led his men in a thrust through a nest of spindly, whirling dervishes, fighting past sweeps of dull steel glaives and placing double-tap bolt shots through the ribs of every jorgall they saw. The Astartes expanded outward from the lake in a ring of off-white armour, the advance rolling over the defenders.
Moving and firing, Garro's troop crested a dune of crystalline granules that crunched loudly beneath their boots and found some close combat kills. A phalanx of jorgall swept and turned to them, caught in mid-flight, daring to stop and engage the Astartes. Weapons barked on both sides of the fight, the heavy roar of bolters drowning out the hissing clatter of electrostatic arc-fire from the implanted projectors of the enemy.
Decius, who favoured the blunt trauma of a power fist, slipped into the midst of the aliens and punched one to the powdery dirt, over and over, slamming its long neck and oval head into a ruin.
'Has he forgotten what I said already? I told him to aim for the torso for a quick kill,' said Sendek.
'He hasn't forgotten,' said Hakur.
With a peculiar, ululating cry, two of the larger xenos coiled and leapt directly at Garro. In mid-jump, they came open like spreading petals on a flower, their tri-fold legs and arms wide. He saw glitters where whole portions of limbs had been replaced with dull metal and black curves of carbon. In one swift motion, the captain let his bolter drop away on its sling and drew Libertas, a blue glow of power shimmering across the blade. In a wide, double-handed sweep Garro cut both the creatures in half, the sword whispering easily through their scaly tissue.
Hakur grunted his approval. 'Still sharp, then?'
'Aye,' Garro replied, shaking droplets of deep red from the blade. He paused momentarily to examine his work, viewing the severed limbs with the same dispassion he had the static intelligence images on Sendek's data-slate.
In their natural, fully fleshed state, a jorgalli adult was perhaps four and a half metres tall, moving on three legs with three joints that radiated from their lower torsos like the spokes on a wheel. Apart from the extensile neck, the upper body of the aliens resembled the lower, but here the three limbs ended in hands with six digits.
The egg-shaped head had deep-set, rheumy eyes and fleshy notches for a nose and mouth. They had skin like Terran lizards, all scales and tiny horns of bone. However, there seemed to be no such thing as a 'natural' jorgall. Every single example of the xenos species yet encountered and terminated by servants of the Imperium, from immature cubs to infirm elders, was modified with implanted devices or cybernetic proxy mechanisms. The slate showed oddities such as spring piston legs, feet replaced with wheels and rollers, knife claws, sheets of subdermal armour plating, telecameras inside optic cavities and even ballistic needler weapons nestled within the hollows of bones.
The similarity in intent between the alien implants and the engineered organs that he possessed as an Astartes was not lost on Garro, but these were xenos, and they were invaders. They were nothing like him and as the Emperor had decreed, they were to be chastised for daring to venture into human space.
Near to the sluggish waterline, a horde of clawed jorgalli, most likely some kind of hand-to-hand variant, hacked at a dreadnought from the Second Company. The venerable warrior had become bogged down in the chemical slurry at the lake's edge and Garro saw it spin on its torso axis, clubbing at them with a chainfist. A white flash fell from nowhere into the heart of the jorgall rippers and the captain heard Ignatius Grulgor bellow with wild laughter. Grulgor came to his feet surrounded by the xenos and threw back his head.
The commander of the Second had gone barefaced; the foul air of the bottle-world did not concern him. In either hand he carried a regulation Mars-pattern bolter, and with delight, Grulgor unloaded them at point-blank range into the enemy.
The sheer velocity of the shots chopped the jorgall into reeking gobbets of flesh, giving the dreadnought valuable seconds in which to extract itself. In moments, Grulgor stood at the centre of a circle of alien carcasses, vapor coiling from the barrels of his guns. The commander saluted the primarch, and flashed a sly, daring grin at Garro before moving on in search of new targets.
'He's so artless, don't you think?' murmured Hakur. 'The esteemed Huron-Fal would have fought his own way out of that mess, but Grulgor wades in, more concerned about showing his mettle to the primarch than where best to spend his ammunition.'
'We're Death Guard. We're not supposed to be artists,' Garro retorted. 'We are craftsmen in war, nothing more, direct and brutal. We don't seek accolades and honours, only duty.'
'Of course,' said the veteran mildly.
Decius came bounding up to Garro, kicking away the corpse parts from his kill. 'Ugh. Do you smell that, sir? These things, their blood stinks.'
The battle-captain didn't answer. He hesitated, his attention drifting, watching Mortarion in the thick of his cold fury. At the primarch's side, Typhon and the twin sentinels of the Deathshroud were whirling and culling, their manreapers moving unhindered through a milling, screaming pack of jorgall. The Death Lord himself had clearly deemed these inferior strains of xenos to be unworthy of his scythe, and instead was at work putting them to the light of his Lantern.
Hard-edged white rays keened from the stub barrel of the huge brass pistol, leaving purple after-images on Garro's retina despite the enhancements of his modified eyesight. Wherever the Lantern's punishing beam struck, jorgall defenders became charcoal sketches, twisting, then turning to smoke.
Mortarion reached into a hooting scram of aliens and ripped an injured man from their midst, batting them effortlessly away as he hauled the wounded Death Guard to safety. The primarch spared the man some unheard words and in return the bareheaded Astartes roared in assent, rejoining the fight.
'Magnificent,' breathed Decius, and Garro could sense the coiled need in the younger man, the yearning to run down the dune and press into Mortarion's company, to throw away all battlefield protocol just for the chance to fight within his master's aura. It was a difficult urge to resist. Garro felt it just as strongly, but he would not lower himself to duplicate the self-aggrandizing behavior of men like Grulgor.
Then the younger Astartes tore his gaze away and cast around. 'So this is the great creation of the xenos, eh? Not much to look at.'
'Human spacefarers once lived in cylinders such as this,' noted Sendek as he reloaded, 'in the deep past, before we mastered the force of gravity. They called them only colonies.'
Decius seemed unimpressed. 'I feel like a fly trapped in a bottle. What sort of inside-out world is this?' He gestured upward, to where the landscape curved away to meet itself kilometres over their heads. A thin bar of illuminators extended away down the axis of the cylinder, disappearing to the fore and aft in yellow clouds. Garro's eyes narrowed as he spied motes of dark green moving up there, shifting through the corridor of zero gravity at the world-ship's centre.
Hakur tensed at his side. 'I see them too, battle-captain, airborne reinforcements.'
Garro called out on the general vox channel. 'Look to the skies, Death Guard!'
On the blood-slicked sandbanks, Mortarion stabbed at the air with the blade of his scythe. 'The captain of the Seventh has keen vision! The xenos seek to distract us with easy kills, to keep our attention on the ground!'
The primarch gave Garro a curt nod and strode to the top of another shallow powder dune, ignoring the scatters of enemy needle-shot that whined off his brass armour. Mortarion let his hood roll back so he could turn his face to the caged sky. 'We must correct them.'
For a long second, Nathaniel found himself rooted to the spot by his master's casual acknowledgement, despite his best intention to make little of it. The favour of his primarch, of an Emperor's son, even for an instant was a heady thing indeed, and he found some understanding as to why men like Grulgor would go so far to court it. Then Garro shook it off and slammed a fresh sickle magazine into his weapon. 'Seventh, to arms!' he cried, bringing the bolter to his shoulder and sighting upward along its length.
THE JORGALL FLYERS came in numbers that dwarfed the ragged packs of land-based fighters the Death Guard met at the lake. Clad in a flickering green armour that wound about them in strips, the airborne xenos had sacrificed two of their limbs to their mechanical surgeons. In their stead were beating wings of sharp metal feathers, each edged like a razor. Feet had become balls of curved talons, and there were more of the lethal arc-throwers and needle-guns embedded in joints where they had keen fields of fire.
They came down whistling and hooting, met a wall of bolt shell and high-energy plasma and died, but this was only the first wave and more of them, green glitters in the sky, poured out of the gauzy yellow cloud.
Garro saw one of Hakur's men wreathed in humming glints of artificial lightning and smelled the stench of crisping human meat as a flight of the xenos flyers shocked the life from him. Nearby the dreadnought Huron-Fal deployed his missile packs and threw explosive death into the wheeling flocks, blasting dozens of them out of the air with the concussion. For his part, Garro moved carefully, low to the oxide sands, picking off the xenos in bursts of full-auto |
ured out of the gauzy yellow cloud.
Garro saw one of Hakur's men wreathed in humming glints of artificial lightning and smelled the stench of crisping human meat as a flight of the xenos flyers shocked the life from him. Nearby the dreadnought Huron-Fal deployed his missile packs and threw explosive death into the wheeling flocks, blasting dozens of them out of the air with the concussion. For his part, Garro moved carefully, low to the oxide sands, picking off the xenos in bursts of full-auto fire as they dropped in on swooping strikes. The attack pattern of the aliens was clear. They were attempting to push the Astartes back into the icy lake.
'Not today,' said the battle-captain to the air, clipping the wings of a large adult female. The creature spiraled headfirst into the sands and twitched.
He became aware that he had company. Garro glanced over his shoulder and frowned in mild surprise at the cadre of lithe golden figures coming up behind him. The Sisters of Silence moved in quick lockstep, maintaining coherent fire corridors and combat discipline with an efficiency that he had only previously seen among his brother Astartes.
It was difficult for him to tell the women apart. Their armour was polished to a glittering sheen, unadorned by any brash sigils or fluttering oath papers like the pale wargear of the Death Guard. Their faces were hidden behind hawkish gold helmets that reminded him of the barred gates to some ancient citadel, no doubt equipped with breather gear that let the unmodified Sisterhood manage the toxic air of the bottle-world. They seemed identical, as if they were forged from some mythic mould by the Emperor's hand. He wondered idly if normal men might view the Astartes in a similar way.
The Sisterhood carried swords and flamers, blades and plumes of fire licked at the jorgall flyers as they dipped into range. Some also carried bolters.
As was their vow in the Emperor's service, the women never spoke, even those speared by needle rounds or struck by arc-fire. They communicated in line of sight using a gestural language similar to Astartes battle-sign, or through a code of clicks over the vox. From the way they crossed the engagement zone, he had no doubt in his mind that they knew exactly where they were going.
As they passed, the Sister closest to him spared Garro a look, and the battle-captain felt a peculiar chill fall across him. That the Sisterhood ranged the galaxy in search of rogue psychics to capture or expunge was widely known, but what was less understood was the manner in which they did it.
Garro had heard that unlike other living beings, these unspeaking women were silent not just in the material world, but also in the ephemeral realm of the mind. There were names for them: untouchables, pariahs, blanks.
He frowned at the irrational nature of thoughts, pushing them away. In the next second, they were forgotten as warning runes blinked inside his visor. Garro caught the sound of shrieking air over razor wings.
He moved as a flight of jorgalli came down upon them. Fast as only an Astartes could be, he slammed his hand into the back of the Sister at his flank and sent her down and away as tenfold claws cut through the air towards them. Garro threw his arm up to deflect the blow and felt the talons slice gouges through his vambrace. The screeching jorgall ripped upwards and into his helmet, tearing it from his neck ring in a bone wrenching impact. He staggered and recovered, bringing his bolter to bear. Garro's gun barked and from the sand the Sister fired with him. None of the flight that had dared to attack them lived to take air again.
The battle-captain grimaced and patted his face, content to find he had gained no new scars from the encounter. Getting to her feet, the witchseeker walked to him and presented Garro with his helmet, ripped back from the jorgall claws. It was badly damaged, but the symbolic gesture was an important one. The woman looked up and inclined her head. With her free hand she touched her heart and her brow. The meaning was clear. My thanks to you. Unsure of the correct protocol, Garro simply nodded in return, and that seemed enough. The women moved on, leaving him behind. It was only as he saw their backs that Garro noticed the plume of dark hair issuing from the Sister's golden helm, and the red aquila etching across her shoulder blades.
He moved down to the core of the fighting, over a dunescape littered with jorgall dead and on rare occasions, fallen figures in pale grey power armour. Each brother perished here ground Garro's rage like stone on stone, for every one of them was worth a thousand of the freakish intruders.
The captain heard the slamming crack of Mortarion's Lantern once again, and looked up to see the primarch sweep it through the air like a searchlight, catching aliens afire, turning them into a rain of ashen fallout.
Typhon's harsh growl sounded on the general vox channel. 'If this is all we have to face, I question if our might will even be tested today!'
'My father sent me here.' Mortarion's words were mild, but heavy with intent. 'Do you think him wrong to do so, first captain?'
Another man might have baulked at the veiled threat, but not Typhon. 'I only chafe at such poor sport, lord commander. We dally here too long, sir.'
Garro caught a grunt of agreement. 'Perhaps we do, my friend.' When he spoke again, the primarch did it aloud, eschewing the vox to broadcast his voice. 'Sons of Death! You know your objectives! Take your units and prosecute the foe! Typhon, with me; Grulgor, the drives; Garro, the hatchery. Go now!'
The elements of the Seventh Company came to him and the battle-captain was pleased to see that there had been few losses among them. The Apothecary, Voyen, looked him up and down, silently commenting on the state of his helmet where the headgear hung from his belt. Decius too was unhooded and his pale face was split with a murderous grin. The staining of viscera on his power fist was mute testament to his kills so far.
He nodded to them, and the men of the Seventh took up their formation. They moved, letting Grulgor's company mop up the last of the airborne jorgall. They crossed out from the crystalline dunes at a quick pace, and into groves of tall tree-like forms woven from some kind of rough fibre.
Sendek ministered to his auspex. 'Tactical plot shows heat sources comparable to jorgall hatchery constructs in this direction.' He pointed. 'That way. The virtual compass is having difficulty assimilating the internal structure of the bottle-world.'
'How current is that data?' asked Hakur. 'The sense-servitors neglected to tell us we were landing in a chem-lake. I find myself wondering what else they may have missed.'
Sendek frowned. 'The readings are... contradictory.'
'Best we be ready for surprises, then,' noted Rahl, hefting the combi-bolter in his grip.
'DO NOT ALLOW yourself to be lulled into complacency by the name of your target, captain.' Mortarion had spoken the words without looking at him, as Garro stared into the hololith in Endurance's assembly hall. 'This so-called hatchery is not only the creche for the jorgalli young, but also a place of modification. You will probably find eggs filled with armed adults as well as their larvae.'
Garro recalled the primarch's words as he looked up at the towering fibrous trees. Further into the 'forest' where the stalks were planted in dense, regular rows, the tree-things were heavy with great grey orbs that hung like monstrous fruits. Some showed signs of motion inside, things shifting about in lazy thrashes. Here and there were pools of watery fluid that Sendek immediately designated as 'yolk'. Voyen agreed with the description, pointing out dripping orbs up above that hung ragged, formless and clearly empty. 'The roots of the trees drink the liquid back in to the system,' noted Sendek. 'Quite efficient.'
'I'm rapt with fascination,' Rahl said, in a tone that indicated the reverse.
Decius kept his bolter close. 'Where are the defences? Do these xenos care so little about their spawn that they leave them open to any predator that happens by?'
'Perhaps their children are the predators,' offered Hakur darkly.
One of the men from the veterans' squad halted and gestured ahead. 'Captain,' he asked, 'do you see this?'
'What is it?' asked Garro.
The Astartes bent and gathered up a shiny metallic object, roughly oval in shape. He turned it over in his hands. 'It's... sir, It's a helm, I think.' He held it up to show them, and Garro's blood chilled at the sight of a Silent Sister's wargear. Something shifted inside it and a severed head dropped from the helmet to the ground, trailing a plume of blonde hair.
'Clean cut,' noted the Astartes. 'Very fresh.'
Voyen's eyes narrowed. 'Where's the... the rest of her?'
Decius used his bolter to point towards different branches of the trees. 'Here, there and there. Over there as well, I think.' Wet rags of red and gold were visible on each.
'The Sisters came to the hatchery?' Hakur cast around, looking low. 'Why would witchseekers come here?'
Decius gave a dry chuckle. 'That, old man, would seem to be secondary to the question of what it was that killed her.'
From ahead of them where the trunks were thickest, there came a ripple of bolter fire. Garro spied the glitter of sporadic muzzle flashes even as a low rumble spread through the sandy dirt beneath his boots. Cracking sounds, sharp as snapping bone, reached him as trees in the middle distance shook and bent, the tops of them fluttering and falling as something large knocked them down.
'You're about to get your answer,' Rahl said, raising his bolter.
The Sisterhood came through the egg-trees, moving like dancers, harrying the jorgalli enhancive with their weapons. It was the largest of the xenos that Garro had encountered onboard the bottle-world, and of a design that had not been in Sendek's documentation. Outwardly it resembled the form of |
ached him as trees in the middle distance shook and bent, the tops of them fluttering and falling as something large knocked them down.
'You're about to get your answer,' Rahl said, raising his bolter.
The Sisterhood came through the egg-trees, moving like dancers, harrying the jorgalli enhancive with their weapons. It was the largest of the xenos that Garro had encountered onboard the bottle-world, and of a design that had not been in Sendek's documentation. Outwardly it resembled the form of a jorgall in a basic sense, but it was perhaps ten times their mass. As high as the canopy of the trees, the thing appeared to be an agglomeration of scaled flesh and metals, a jorgall deformed by gigantism and then improved by technology to be larger still.
The battle-captain could make out fleshy matter inside a glass orb at the middle of the cyborg's mass, perhaps, he reasoned, whatever remained of the jorgall's original form. It had no arms. Instead there were writhing clusters of grey iron tentacles sprouting from each of its upper limb sockets. Some moved like striking serpents, snapping out at the Sisters, while others knotted around an unseen burden that the thing clasped desperately to its chest.
'Some sort of guardian?' offered Voyen.
'Some sort of target!' retorted Decius and opened fire.
The Death Guard moved in to assist the Sisterhood, firing on the approach, adding their shots to the storm of bullets that haloed the cyborg. Garro had the fleeting impression that the machine-form was trying to escape, but then it turned around and threw any notion of fleeing aside. Perhaps it might have got away from the women, but with Garro's arrival it had no other choice but to stand and fight.
Metal feelers lashed out across the ground, keen-edged tips slicing furrows in the dirt. They flexed and moved, ripping up divots and roots. Hakur was caught off-guard as a tentacle lashed at him and threw the Astartes aside, rolling off the trunk of an egg-tree. Garro saw another rip the leg from one of the troopers and put him down in a welter of blood. The captain ducked away from the questing appendages as they hissed over his head.
A witchseeker, caught with her bolter breech open and magazine empty, met the tip of them through her breastbone. They stabbed through her torso and pinned her to a tree, then tore back out in a jet of spent vitae. Still trailing blood, the tentacles bent and whipped at the Emperor's warriors, clipping Rahl on the back swing and tearing the gold hood from another of Kendel's women. Without her helmet, a severe Null Maiden with a red topknot and portcullis faceplate choked and stumbled, the rancid atmosphere of the jorgall vessel scouring her lungs. Voyen was already moving to assist her, and Garro's face soured. The cyborg was just too fast, too wild and uncontrolled in its motions. To kill it, they would need to take a more direct approach. He thumbed the selector switch on his bolter to fully automatic fire and charged the xenos hybrid.
The battle-captain unloaded an entire clip into the legs and thorax of the cyborg, gouts of oily fluid and flashing short-circuit arcs marking where each round hit home. The jorgall thing hooted and growled, turning to focus its attention on the figure in grey-white armour. Steel-sheathed whips shot out, extending and buzzing with effort, and Garro threw himself into a roll, dodging the places where they stabbed into the soil. The tips of the lashing feelers clattered over his ceramite armour, and Garro felt a sting of pain as they raked the place where the flyer's claws had cut him on the lakeside, reopening the wounds there. A chance flexion of the tentacle, a second of delay on his part, and suddenly the captain's bolter was spinning away from him through the air, the strap hanging ragged as the gun was snapped from his grip.
Garro turned into the force of the impact, rolled again and came up with Libertas in his hand. Stabbing lines of metal came at him and he batted them away with the sword blade, flares of sparks glaring orange-white in the sullen artificial daylight of the egg-tree groves. The others were pouring their fire on to the cyborg, but its attention was still split between Garro and the object it held tight, something swaddled in thin grey muslin. The battle-captain threw himself at the jorgall mechanoid, chopping off the tips of tentacles and slashing at others. He spun as he felt iron limbs touch his legs and hacked at them, but he was close to its torso and the cyborg's appendages were thicker here, more muscular, more resilient. Powerful coils enveloped him and Garro felt the ground drop away. The machine-hybrid shook him violently, his sword-arm flailing against his side where he could not turn Libertas in his defence. His teeth rattled inside his skull and there was blood in his mouth.
He heard the splintering of flexsteel in the joints of his armour, smelled the acidic tang of spilled coolant as leaks jetted from his backpack. The Astartes hissed through his teeth as pain bit into him, compacting his implanted carapace and ribcage. It was a struggle to keep breath in his lungs, as the pressure grew greater with every moment. Garro was aware of motion as the cyborg drew him closer, up to the glassy capsule of its meat core. Hollow, predatory eyes stared at him, brimming with alien hate. The jorgall wanted to watch him die, to savour it.
The killing stress continued to increase as Garro's three lungs ran dry, his heart hammering wildly in his chest. Darkness was closing in on him. At the edges of the captain's consciousness, he glimpsed a shimmering ghost image, a figure that seemed to be his primarch, beckoning him towards oblivion.
In that moment, Garro tapped a final reserve of mad, desperate strength. By Terra's will, he told himself, in the name of my home world and the Imperium of Man, I will not perish!
New energy flooded through him, hot and raw. Garro reached deep into himself and found a well-spring of conviction, steeling himself against the xenos's murderous embrace. The captain felt warmth spread into his agonized muscles as he pictured Terra's majesty in his mind's eye, and there with his hand cupped beneath it, holding it safe, the Emperor. In the Emperor's name, I will not fail! I dare not fail!
He unleashed a wordless, furious snarl of defiance and fought back against the alien coils, putting every last ounce of power he could muster into Libertas. The power sword's blade met jorgall steel and parted it, screeching through artificial nerves and mechanical cabling. The cyborg faltered and stumbled as Garro cut his way free, fragments of cracked ceramite shedding from his armour. The captain's burning lungs drank in ragged gulps of air. He pressed forward even as the machine-form tried to shove him away, bringing up the glowing tip of the blade.
Garro saw emotion flutter over the trembling mouthparts of the jorgall as Libertas touched the crown of its glass pod. Unlike the xenos, the captain did not linger for the sake of cruelty. Instead, he pressed his entire weight behind the sword and shattered the capsule, forcing the weapon into the fleshy torso of the alien until it burst from the cyborg's back in a rain of crimson.
The jorgall collapsed with a thunderous crash, tearing down a stand of trees as it fell. Half-finished things erupted from eggs, mewling and spitting, to be met by the guns of the Death Guard and the witchseekers.
Taking back his sword, Garro dropped to the ground as the cyborg's last nerve impulses fluttered through its limbs. Its burden, the shape in grey muslin, was released and rolled to his feet. The captain knelt and unwrapped it with the tip of his blade.
Inside there was an immature jorgall. What surprised him was not that the xenos hatchling was completely free of any mechanical augmentation, but the freakish mutation of the tripedal being. It was conjoined, a malformation of two aliens that had somehow become merged during growth. Its skull was enormous, a bloated thing with four distinct chambers, quite unlike the ovoid heads typical of its species. Legs and arms twitched towards him, milky eyes swiveled and narrowed in Garro's direction.
Without warning, the air around him changed. The atmosphere became greasy and slick on his skin, suddenly scratchy with the sharp stench of ozone. He had felt such things before, on other battlefields, in other wars for the good of humanity. Garro's mind screamed a single word, and he understood exactly why the Sisters of Silence had come to this place.
'Psyker!' He drew up the sword in an arc, ready to take the creature's head from its shoulders.
Wait.
The word struck him like a cold flood, making his arm go rigid. The ozone stink enveloped him, clouding his thoughts and tightening on his mind just as the cyborg had coiled around his body. It reached into Garro, searching through him as easily as he might have leafed through a book.
Death Guard, it whispered, amusement in its words, so confident of your tightness, so afraid to see the crack in your spirit.
Garro tried to complete the killing blow, but he was locked tight, trapped in amber.
Soon the end comes. We see tomorrow. So shall you. All you worship will wither. All will-
The mutant's torso burst in a welter of blood and bone fragments as a single bolter round tore a hole through it as big as a fist. Suddenly the haze was gone and Garro blinked it away, as if waking from a deep sleep. He turned and found Sister Amendera Kendel at his shoulder, smoke curling from the muzzle of her gun. Her dark eyes studied him from the vision slits of her helmet. The captain stood carefully and duplicated her gesture from the lakeside, touching his armoured fingertips to his heart and his brow.
He became aware of a sound reaching through the wooded ranks of the hatchery, a whistling, a keening that was quickly growing in volume. The sound was atonal and harsh on his ears. It was a lament, a cry |
turned and found Sister Amendera Kendel at his shoulder, smoke curling from the muzzle of her gun. Her dark eyes studied him from the vision slits of her helmet. The captain stood carefully and duplicated her gesture from the lakeside, touching his armoured fingertips to his heart and his brow.
He became aware of a sound reaching through the wooded ranks of the hatchery, a whistling, a keening that was quickly growing in volume. The sound was atonal and harsh on his ears. It was a lament, a cry from the unhatched.
'Look!' shouted Hakur. 'In the trees! Movement, everywhere!'
Every egg-orb that Garro could see was trembling as the jorgalli things inside thrashed and tore at their confinement, frantic in their need to escape. He flicked a look to Kendel, as the Sister directed her cohorts to gather the dead mutant into a chainmail sack. She glanced up at him and nodded. Perhaps Voyen had been correct, perhaps the cyborg had been some kind of guardian protecting the psyker child, and now it was dead, its siblings were enraged.
Spatters of yolk rained down from the trunks. Kendel flicked out harsh gestures to her Sisters and the women moved off, turning their flamers on the foliage. Garro saw the merit in her action and called into his vox-link. 'Deploy grenades and explosives. Follow the Sisterhood's example. Destroy the trees.'
The fibrous matter of the egg-trees was dry and made excellent tinder. In moments, the alien woodland was burning, the grey sacs popping and boiling. Many of the enhancives made it to the ground, mad with fury, and they were put down with detached precision.
Garro watched the blue-tinged flames sear and dance as they spread, murdering the world-ship's dormant and newborn. All across the bottle, the jorgall were perishing beneath the hand of the Death Guard, making a lie of the mutant child's final words. 'A lie,' said Garro aloud, watching the poisonous smoke turn above his head.
THREE
Aeria Gloris
A Poisoned Chalice
Put to the Question
IN THE RUINS of their enemy, the Death Guard task force regrouped and surveyed the breadth of the destruction they had wrought. The wreckage of the jorgalli picket fleet was a cloud of crystallized breathing gasses, hull fragments and the dead. Some of the teardrop-shaped xenos vessels were still relatively intact. One by one, these were being scuttled with atomic charges, reduced to sun-hot balls of radioactive plasma. In less than a standard Terran day, there would be nothing recognizable left to show the face of an enemy that the Death Guard had obliterated so utterly.
Out there in the shoal of destruction, Stormbirds on funerary details scoured the engagement area for Astartes who had been blown into the dark during boarding operations. Those found would be interred as heroes, once the progenoid glands in their corpses had been harvested. The precious flesh-matter from the dead would serve the Legion in their stead, passing on to strengthen new initiates when the next round of recruitment began. Once in a while, a lucky find would bring the recovery crews a live battle-brother, dormant inside his armour beneath the lulling pressure of his susan membranes, but that happened very rarely.
Beyond the zone where the Death Guard fleet gathered like carrion birds around a corpse, the jorgall bottle was executing a slow, wounded turn to sight down into the ecliptic plane of the Iota Horologii system. Drifts of wreckage and broken panels from the construct's vast solar panels floated behind it in a faint cometary tail. The main drives blinked out of sequence as the fusion motors worked the colossal mass of the world-ship about. Dissenting voices from the Mechanicum contingent aboard the warship Spectre of Death had petitioned Mortarion for a few days in which to loot the alien craft of technology. The primarch, as was his prerogative, refused the request. The letter of Lord Malcador's orders - and therefore, by extension, those of the Emperor himself - was that the jorgall incursion into the sector was to be exterminated. The master of the Death Guard clearly saw no point of confusion in those orders. There was to be nothing left of the aliens.
And yet...
Nathaniel Garro watched the play and turn of the fleet from the gallery above the Endurance's main launch bay, above him a span of thick armoured glass and space beyond it, below, through skeletal brass frames and grid-cut decking, the expanse of the flight platform. Gradually, his gaze dropped.
Down among the sleek Stormbirds and heavy Thunderhawks was a single swan-like shuttlecraft, the spread wings of the ship detailed in gold and black. It stood out among the white and grey Astartes craft, a single bright game fowl nestled in a flock of pale raptors.
Aboard that vessel, a sole tangible remnant of the assault would remain after all the works of the jorgall were erased from this sector of space. He found himself wondering what other orders the Sisters of Silence had, orders that were unbound even in the face of a primarch's countermand. It was not defiance on their part to go against Mortarion's wishes if it was the Emperor's will to do otherwise, surely? This was not disobedience. This was a trivial issue, a small thing of little consequence. Garro had never known of and could barely envisage an instance when the commands of primarch and Emperor would not be in harmony.
An oiled hiss signaled the opening of the gallery's hatch and Garro looked to see who had come to interrupt his customary moment of solitude after the battle. A small smile curled at his lips as two figures entered the echoing, empty colonnade. He gave a shallow bow as Amendera Kendel approached him, a younger woman in a less ornate version of a witchseeker's robes walking at her heels.
Kendel looked to Garro as he assumed he must have looked to her: fresh from the battlefield, fatigued, but content that the fight had gone well. 'Sister,' said Garro, 'I trust the outcome this day was satisfactory to you.'
The woman signed a few words and the girl at her side spoke. 'Battle-Captain Garro, well met. The goals of the Imperium have been ably served.'
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow and looked directly at the girl. He saw her more clearly now, noting that she had no armour or visible weapons as Kendel did. 'Forgive me, but it was my understanding that the Sisters of Silence are never to speak.'
The girl nodded, her manner changing slightly as she answered. 'That is indeed so, lord. No Sister may utter a word, unto death, once she gives the Oath of Tranquillity. I am a novice, captain. I have yet to take the vow and so I may speak to you. Sisters-in-waiting such as I serve our order when communication is needed with outsiders.'
'Indeed,' Garro nodded. 'Then may I ask your mistress what she wishes of me?'
Kendel gestured again, and the novice translated, her voice taking on a formal tone once more. 'I wished to speak with you before we departed the Endurance, on the matters to which you and your men were party aboard the jorgall cylinder. It is the Emperor's wish that they not be spoken of.'
The captain absorbed this. Of course, why else had Kendel killed the alien psyker with a shot to the chest instead of a round through the skull? To preserve whatever secrets it held inside that misshapen head. He nodded to himself. The Lord of Man's great works into the understanding of the ethereal realms were beyond his grasp as a mere captain, and if the Emperor required the corpse of a dead xenos mutant to further that understanding, then Nathaniel Garro had no place to contradict it. 'I shall make it so. The Emperor has his tasks and we have ours. My men would never question that.'
The Silent Sister came a little closer and watched him carefully. She signed something to the novice and the girl hesitated, questioning her mistress in return before relaying the words. 'Sister Amendera asks... She wishes to know if the child spoke to you.'
'It had no mouth,' Garro answered, quicker than he intended to.
Kendel placed a finger on her lips and shook her head. Then she moved the finger to her temple.
Nathaniel looked at his hands. There were still flecks of alien blood on them. 'I am clean of any taint,' he insisted. 'The thing did not contaminate me.'
'Did it speak to you?' repeated the novice.
The moment became long before he spoke. 'It knew what I was. It said it could see tomorrow. It told me all I worship would die.' Garro sneered. 'But I am an Astartes. I worship nothing. I honour no false god, only the reality of Imperial truth.'
His answer seemed to appease Sister Amendera, and she inclined her head in a bow. 'Your fealty, like that of all Death Guard, has never been in doubt, captain. Thank you for your honesty,' relayed the novice. 'It is clear the creature was attempting to cloud your intention. You did well to resist it.' The Oblivion Knight made the sign of the aquila and bowed.
The girl mirrored Kendel's gesture. 'My mistress wishes you and your company to accept the commendation and gratitude of the Sisters of Silence. Your names will be presented to the Sigillite in recognition of your service to Terra.'
'You honour us,' Garro replied. 'If I might ask, what was the fate of your comrade, the Null Maiden who was unhooded in the fighting?'
The novice nodded. 'Ah, Sister Thessaly, yes. Her injuries were serious, but she will recover. Our medicae aboard the Aeria Gloris will heal her in due course. I understand your Brother Voyen saved her life.'
'Aeria Gloris,' repeated Garro. 'I do not know of that vessel. Is it part of our flotilla?'
A smile crossed Kendel's lips and she signed to the novice. 'No, captain. It is part of mine. See for yourself.' The woman pointed out through the glass dome and Garro followed her direction.
A piece of the void moved slowly across the prow of Endurance, passing between the bow of the warship and the distant glow of the Iotan sun. Whereas conventional vessels of the Imperial fleets ran |
aved her life.'
'Aeria Gloris,' repeated Garro. 'I do not know of that vessel. Is it part of our flotilla?'
A smile crossed Kendel's lips and she signed to the novice. 'No, captain. It is part of mine. See for yourself.' The woman pointed out through the glass dome and Garro followed her direction.
A piece of the void moved slowly across the prow of Endurance, passing between the bow of the warship and the distant glow of the Iotan sun. Whereas conventional vessels of the Imperial fleets ran with pennants and signal lamps to illuminate the lengths of their hulls, this new arrival, this Aeria Gloris, came in darkness, arriving out of the interstellar deeps as an ocean predator might slip to the surface of a night time sea.
Garro had never laid eyes on a Black Ship before. These were the mothercraft of the Silent Sisterhood, carrying them back and forth across the galactic disc on the Emperor's witch hunting missions. It was hard to make out anything more than the most basic details of the ship's design. Framed against the solar glow of Iota Horologii, the battle cruiser was at least a match in size for the Death Guard capital ship Indomitable Will. It lacked the traditional plough blade prow of most Imperial vessels, ending instead in a blunt bow. A single, knife-edge sail hung below the stern and on it was an aquila cut from shimmering volcanic glass. Where Endurance and the ships of the Astartes flotilla were swords against the enemies of Terra, Aeria Gloris was a hammer of witches.
'Impressive,' rumbled Garro. There was little else he could say. He found himself wondering what it would be like to wander the decks of the vessel, at once attracted and repelled by the idea of what secrets the craft must hide.
Sister Amendera bowed again and nodded to her novice. 'We take our leave of you, honoured captain,' said the girl. 'We are to make space for Luna by day's end, and the warp grows turbulent.'
'Safe journey, sisters,' he offered, unable to tear his gaze from the dark starship.
KALEB GUIDED THE cart across the length of the armoury chamber, taking care to stay to the outer walkway around the edges of the long hall. His master's bolter lay across the trolley, the weapon's usually flawless finish marred by lines of damage from the engagement on the jorgall world-ship. As Garro's housecarl, it was Kaleb's duty to see the gun to the arming servitors and ensure that the weapon was returned to its full glory as quickly as possible. He intended not to disappoint his captain.
He passed knots of Death Guard as they debriefed and disarmed, men from Temeter's company in animated conversation about a daunty moment during the boarding of a xenos destroyer, and Astartes of Typhon's First in bellicose humour. Across the chamber he spied Hakur talking with Decius, as the younger man relayed a moment from the battle with an enthusiasm that the dour veteran clearly did not share.
The men of the XIV Legion were not given to raucous celebration in their victories - such displays, Kaleb had heard it said, were more in the character of the Space Wolves or the World Eaters - but they did, in their own fashion, salute their successes and give honour to those who fell along the way.
The Death Guard cultivated an image that other Legions were only too quick to accept: that they were brutal, ruthless and hard-hearted, but the reality had more shades to it than that. That these Astartes rarely made sport of their warfare was true, but they were not so bleak and stern as some would have believed.
Compared to the stories Kaleb had heard of stoic and dispassionate Legions like the Ultramarines or the Imperial Fists, the Death Guard could almost be considered willful and disorderly.
Rounding a stanchion, the housecarl's train of thought stalled at the sound of harsh laughter from a figure before him. He hesitated. Commander Grulgor stood in his path, speaking in muted, amused tones to an Astartes from his Second Company. The two men clasped gauntlets in a firm, serious handshake and in spite of the dimness of the ill-lit walkway Kaleb was still able to make out the shape of a disc shaped brass token held in Grulgor's fingers before he passed it into the other man's grip.
He understood immediately that he had intruded on a private moment, something only Astartes should share, something that a mere serf like him was not to be privy to, but there was nowhere Kaleb could hide, and if he turned around, the clatter of the cart's wheels would reveal him. In spite of himself, he coughed. It was a very small sound, but it brought with it a sudden silence as the commander broke off and noticed the housecarl for the first time.
Kaleb was looking directly at the decking, and did not see the expression of complete contempt Grulgor turned upon him.
'Garro's little helot,' said the commander. 'Are you listening where you should not?' He took a step towards the housecarl and against his will, Kaleb shrank back. Grulgor's voice took on the tone of a teacher lecturing a student, making a lesson of him. 'Do you know what this is, Brother Mokyr?'
The other Astartes examined Kaleb coldly. 'It's not a servitor, commander, not enough steel and pistons for that. It resembles a man.'
Grulgor shook his head. 'No, not a man, but a housecarl.' The emphasis he put on the title was scornful. 'A sad bit of trivia, a dusty practice from the ancient days.' The commander spread his hands. 'Look on, Mokyr. Look at a failure.'
Kaleb found his voice. 'Lord, if it pleases you, I have duties to perform-'
He was ignored. 'Before our primarch brought new, strong blood to our Legion, there were many rituals and habits that knotted around the Astartes. Most have been cut away.' Grulgor's face soured. 'Some still remain, thanks to the dogged adherence of men who should know better.'
Mokyr nodded. 'Captain Garro.'
'Yes, Garro.' Grulgor was dismissive. 'He allows sentiment to cloud his judgment. Oh, he's a fine warrior, I will give him that, but our brother, Nathaniel, is old in his ways, too bound by his Terran roots.' The Astartes leaned closer to Kaleb, his voice dropping. 'Or, am I incorrect in my judgment? Perhaps Garro keeps you around him, not out of some misplaced sense of tradition, but as a reminder? A living example of what it means to fail the Legion?'
'Please,' said the serf, his knuckles white around the handles of the cart.
'I do not understand,' said Mokyr, genuinely confounded. 'How is this helot a failure?'
'Ah,' Grulgor said, looking away, 'but for a turn of fate, this wastrel might have walked among the Legiones Astartes. He could have stood where you do now, brother, wearing the white, bearing arms for the Imperium. Our friend here was once an aspirant to the XIV Legion, as were we all. Only he fell short of greatness during the trials of acceptance, damned by his own weakness.' The commander tapped his chin thoughtfully.
'Tell me, serf, where did your will break? Crossing the black plains? Was it in the tunnel of the venoms?'
Kaleb's voice was a whisper. 'The thorn garden, lord.' The hateful old memory emerged, fresh and undimmed despite the span of years since the event. The housecarl winced as he recalled the stabbing, poisonous barbs on his bare skin, his blood running in streaks all across his body. He remembered the pain and worse, the shame as his legs turned to water beneath him. He remembered falling into the thick, drab mud, lying there, weeping, knowing that he had lost forever the chance to become a Death Guard.
'The thorn garden, of course.' Grulgor tapped his fingers on his vambrace. 'So many have bled out their last in that ordeal. You did well to survive that far.'
Mokyr raised an eyebrow. 'Sir, do you mean to say that this... man was an aspirant? But those who fail the trials perish!'
'Most do,' corrected the commander. 'Most of them die of the wounds they suffer or the poisons they cannot resist during the seven days of trial, but there are some few who fail but live on still, and even they will largely choose the Emperor's Peace over a return in dishonour to their clans.' He gave Kaleb a cool stare. 'But not all. Some lack the strength of will even for that honour.' Grulgor looked back at Mokyr and sniffed archly. 'Some Legions make use of their throwbacks, but it is not the Death Guard way. Still, Garro chose to invoke an aged right, to save this wretch from the pit of his own inadequacy. He rescued him.' Grulgor snorted. 'How noble.'
Kaleb found a spark of defiance. 'It is my privilege to serve,' he said.
'Is it?' growled the Astartes. 'You dare to parade your own deficiencies around us, the chosen men of Mortarion? You are an insult. You ape us, hang upon the tails of our cloaks while we fight for the future of our species, polishing guns and pretending you are worthy to be in our company?' He pressed Kaleb's cart towards the wall. 'You skulk in the shadows. You are Garro's petty spy. You are nothing!' Grulgor's annoyance flared in his eyes. 'If I were captain of the First, the pointless ritual that granted your existence would be ended in a second.'
'So, then,' said another voice, 'is the commander of the Second dissatisfied with his honoured role?'
'Apothecary Voyen.' Grulgor greeted the new arrival with a wary nod. 'Sadly there are many things that I find myself dissatisfied with.' He stepped away from the trembling housecarl.
'Life is always a challenge in that regard,' Voyen said with forced lightness, throwing Kaleb a sideways look.
'Indeed,' said the commander. 'Is there something you wanted, brother?'
'Only an explanation as to why you saw fit to waylay my captain's equerry during the course of his duties. The battle-captain will be returning shortly and he will wish to know why his orders have not been carried out.'
Kaleb clearly saw a nerve twitch in Grulgor's jaw in reaction to the temerity of Voyen's reply, and for a moment he expected the senior Astartes to bark out an angry retort to the jun |
aleb a sideways look.
'Indeed,' said the commander. 'Is there something you wanted, brother?'
'Only an explanation as to why you saw fit to waylay my captain's equerry during the course of his duties. The battle-captain will be returning shortly and he will wish to know why his orders have not been carried out.'
Kaleb clearly saw a nerve twitch in Grulgor's jaw in reaction to the temerity of Voyen's reply, and for a moment he expected the senior Astartes to bark out an angry retort to the junior Apothecary, but then the instant was gone as some moment of understanding he was not a party to passed between them.
With exaggerated care, Grulgor stepped out of Kaleb's path. 'The helot may go about his business,' he said, and with that, the commander dismissed them both and strode away with Mokyr at his side.
Kaleb watched them go and once again saw the glitter of the strange brass token as the Astartes tucked the coin-like object into an ammunition pouch on his belt.
He sucked in a shaky breath and bowed to Voyen. 'Thank you, lord. I must confess, I do not understand why the commander detests me so.'
Voyen walked with him as the housecarl continued on his way. 'Ignatius Grulgor hates everything with equal measure, Kaleb. You shouldn't take it personally.'
'And yet, the things he says... sometimes those thoughts are mine as well.'
'Really? Answer me this, then. Do you think that Captain Garro, the leader of the Seventh Great Company, considers you an insult? Would a man of honour like him even contemplate such a thing?'
Kaleb shook his head.
Voyen placed his huge hand on the housecarl's shoulder. 'You will never be one of us, that is true, but you still serve the Legion despite that.'
'But Grulgor was right,' Kaleb mumbled. 'At times, I am a spy. I go about the ship, invisible in plain sight, and I see and hear. I keep my lord captain conversant with the mood of the Legion.'
The Apothecary's expression remained neutral. 'A good commander should always be well informed. This is not plotting and scheming of which we speak. It is merely the report of talk and temper. You should feel no conflict in this.'
They arrived at the arsenal dais where the armament-servitors were waiting, and the housecarl presented them with the captain's bolter. Kaleb felt a churn of tension coming loose inside him, the need to speak pressing on his lips. Voyen seemed to sense it too, and guided him to an isolated corner near a viewport.
'It is more than that. I have seen things.' Kaleb's words were hushed and secretive. 'Sometimes in quarters of the ships, where the crewmen do not often venture. Hooded gatherings, lord. Clandestine meetings of what can only be your battle-brothers.'
Voyen was very still. 'You speak of the lodges, yes?'
Kaleb was taken aback to hear the Apothecary talk openly to him of such things. The quiet orders of men inside the Legiones Astartes were not something that was common knowledge to the outside world, and certainly they were things that a man such as Kaleb should not have been aware of. 'I have heard that name whispered.' The housecarl rubbed his hands together. The palms were sweaty. Something in the back of his mind urged him to say no more, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to get the words out, to be free of them. 'Just now, I saw the commander give a medallion to Brother Mokyr. I have seen one before, among the personal effects of the late Sergeant Raphim after his death at the Carinea Moons.' Kaleb licked his lips. 'A brass disc embossed with the skull and star of our Legion, lord.'
'And what do you think it is?'
'A badge, sir? A token of membership for these surreptitious groupings?'
The Astartes gave him a level, unmoving stare. 'You are afraid that these meetings might threaten the Death Guard's unity, is that it? That sedition may be at their core?'
'How could they not?' hissed Kaleb. 'Secrecy is the enemy of truth. Truth is what the Emperor and his warriors stand for! If men must gather in shadows-' He broke off, blinking.
Voyen managed a small smile. 'Kaleb, you respect Captain Garro. We all comprehend the might of our primarch. Do you think such great men would stand idly by and let subversion take root in their midst?' The Apothecary put his hand on the housecarl's shoulder again and Kaleb felt the smallest amount of pressure there. He became aware of the mass and strength of the warrior's ceramite glove, enveloping his flesh and bone. 'What you have seen in sideways glances and overheard rumours is nothing that should concern you, and it is certainly not a matter with which to distract the battle-captain. Trust me when I tell you this.'
'But...' Kaleb said, his throat becoming dry, 'but how can you know that?'
The smile faded from Voyen's lips. 'I can't say.'
IN HIS INFORMAL robes, Nathaniel Garro still cut an impressive figure, even among his own men who had yet to divest themselves of their battle armour. At the far end of the wide armoury chamber, in the section of the long iron hall that was the province of the Seventh Company, he moved through the Astartes and spoke with each one, sharing a nod or a grin with those in good humour, sparing a solemn commiseration for those who had lost a close comrade in the engagement with the jorgall. He singled out Decius for mild chastisement where the younger Astartes sat at work on his power fist, cleaning the oversized gauntlet with a thick cloth.
'Our tactical approach at the bottle-world was not meant to be one of close combat, Solun,' he noted, 'you carry a bolter for good reason.'
'If it pleases my captain, I have heard this lecture already today from Brother Sendek. He informed me, at great length and in intricate detail, of exactly how I had failed to adhere to the rules of engagement.'
'I see.' Garro took a seat on the bench next to Decius. 'And what was your response?'
The young warrior smiled. 'I told him that we were both still alive, rules or no, and that victory is the only true measure of success.'
'Indeed?'
'Of course!' Decius worked at the power fist with great care. 'What matters in war above all other things is the final result. If there is no victory...' He broke off, finding his words. 'Then there is no point.'
From nearby, Andus Hakur rubbed a hand over his stubbly grey chin. 'Such tactical genius from the mouth of a whelp. I fear I may become giddy with surprise.'
Decius's eyes flashed at the old veteran's jibe, but Garro caught the moment and laughed softly, defusing it. 'You must forgive Andus, Solun. At his age, his sharp tongue is the only blade he can wield with skill any more.'
Hakur clutched at his chest in mock pain. 'Oh. An arrow to my heart, from my own captain. Such tragedy.'
Garro maintained an even smile, but in truth he could detect the weariness, the pain in his old friend's forced jocularity. Hakur had lost men from his squad on the world-ship, and the pain of it was just below the surface. 'We all fought well this day,' said the captain, the words coming of their own accord. 'Once more the Death Guard have been the tools that carve the Emperor's will into the galaxy.'
None of the other Astartes spoke. Each of them had fallen silent, faces turned over Garro's shoulder. As he cast around to learn why, as one, the men of the Seventh Company came to their knees.
'My battle-captain.'
It perturbed Garro to realize that he had not even heard the approach of his primarch. As in the assembly hall before the assault, Mortarion made issue of his presence only when it suited him to do so.
Garro bowed low to the master of the Death Guard, dimly aware of Typhon at his lord's side, and a servitor lurking behind the first captain's cloak.
'My lord,' he replied.
Mortarion's face shifted in a cool smile, visible even behind the breath collar around his throat and lips. 'The Sisterhood has taken leave of us. They spoke highly of the Seventh.'
Garro dared to raise his gaze a little. Like him, the primarch was no longer clad in his brass and steel power armour, but instead in common duty robes over a set of more utilitarian gear. Still, even in such simple garb, there was no mistaking his presence. High and gaunt, a man spun from whipcord steel muscle, he was as tall in his deck boots as Typhon was in the First Company's Terminator armour.
And of course, there was the manreaper. Sheathed across his back, the arc of the heavy black blade curved behind his head in a lightless sweep. 'Stand, Nathaniel, please. It becomes tiresome to look down upon my men.'
Garro drew himself up to his full height, looking into the primarch's deep amber eyes and steeling himself not to draw back. In turn, Mortarion's gaze burned deep into him, and the captain felt as if his heart were held in the primarch's long, slender fingers, being weighed and considered.
'You ought to watch your step, Typhon,' said the Death Lord. 'This one, he'll have your job one day.'
Typhon, ever sullen, only grimaced. Before the first captain, the primarch, and at the edges of his sight, the twin guards of the Deathshroud, Garro felt as if he was at the bottom of a well. The nerve of a common man would probably have broken beneath such scrutiny.
'Lord,' he asked, 'what service may the Seventh Company do for you?'
Mortarion beckoned him. 'Their captain may step forward, Garro. He has earned a reward.'
Nathaniel did as he was told, darting a quick look towards Hakur. His words at the lakeside echoed in his mind. We don't seek accolades and honours. Garro had no doubt that the veteran was keenly amused by this turn of events. 'Sir,' he began, 'I deserve no special-'
'That is not a refusal forming upon your lips, is it, captain?' warned Typhon. 'Such false modesty is unwelcome.'
'I am merely a servant of the Emperor,' Garro managed. 'That is honour enough.'
Mortarion gestured the servitor forward, and the captain saw that it carried a tray of goblets and bowls. 'Then instead, Nathaniel, might you honour me by sharing my drink?' |
d honours. Garro had no doubt that the veteran was keenly amused by this turn of events. 'Sir,' he began, 'I deserve no special-'
'That is not a refusal forming upon your lips, is it, captain?' warned Typhon. 'Such false modesty is unwelcome.'
'I am merely a servant of the Emperor,' Garro managed. 'That is honour enough.'
Mortarion gestured the servitor forward, and the captain saw that it carried a tray of goblets and bowls. 'Then instead, Nathaniel, might you honour me by sharing my drink?'
He stiffened, recognizing the ornate cups and the liquid in them. 'Of... of course, lord.'
It was said that there was no toxin too strong, no poison so powerful and no contagion of such lethality that a Death Guard could not resist it. From their inception, the XIV Legion had always been the Emperor's warriors in the most hostile of environments, fighting through chem-clouds or acidic atmospheres that no normal human could survive in. Barbarus, the Legion's base, the adoptive home planet of Mortarion himself, molded this characteristic. As with their primarch, so with his Astartes: the Death Guard were a resilient, invincible breed.
They hardened themselves through stringent training regimens as neophyte Astartes, willingly exposing themselves to, chemical agents, contaminants, mortal viral strains and venoms of a thousand different shades. They could resist them all. It was how they had found victory amid the blight-fungus of Urssa, how they had weathered the hornet swarms on Ogre IV, the reason why they had been sent to fight the chlorine-breathing jorgall.
The servitor deftly mixed and poured dark liquids into the cups, and Garro's nostrils sensed the odour of chemicals: a distillate of the agent magenta nerve bane, some variety of sword beetle venom, and other, less identifiable compounds. No Astartes in Mortarion's service would ever have dared to call this practice a ritual. The word conjured up thoughts of primitive idolatry, anathema to the clean, impious logic of Imperial truth. This was simply their way, a Death Guard tradition that survived despite the intentions of men like Ignatius Grulgor. The cups were Mortarion's, and in each battle where the Death Lord took the field in person, he would select a warrior in the aftermath and share with that man a draught of poison. They would drink and they would live, cementing the unbreakable strength of the Legion they embodied.
The servitor presented the tray to the primarch and he took a cup for himself, then handed one to Garro and a third to Typhon. Mortarion raised his goblet in salute. 'Against death.' With a smooth tip of his wrist, the primarch drained the cup to its dregs. Typhon showed a feral half-smile and did the same, completing the toast and drinking deep.
Garro saw a flush of crimson on the first captain's face, but Typhon gave no other outward sign of distress. He sniffed at the liquid before him and his senses resisted, his implanted neuroglottis and preomnor organs rebelling at the mere smell of the poisonous brew; but to refuse the cup would be seen as weakness, and Nathaniel Garro would never allow himself to be accused of such a thing.
'Against death,' he said.
With a steady motion, the captain drank it all and placed the upturned goblet back on the tray. A ripple of approval drifted through the men of the Seventh Company, but Garro barely heard it. His blood was rumbling in his ears as punishing heat seared his throat and gullet, the powerful engines of his Astartes physiology racing to fight down the toxins he had ingested. Decius was watching him in awe, without doubt dreaming of a day when it might be his hand, not Garro's, holding the goblet.
Mortarion's chill smile grew wider. 'A rare and fine vintage, would you not agree?'
His chest on fire, Garro couldn't speak, so he nodded. The primarch laughed in a low chug of amusement. Mortarion's cup could have contained water for all the apparent effect it had upon him. He placed his hand on the battle-captain's back. 'Come, Nathaniel. Let's walk it off.'
AS THEY CAME to the ramp that led to the balcony above the grand armoury chamber, Typhon bowed to his liege lord and made his excuses, walking away towards the alcoves where Commander Grulgor and the Second Company made their station. Garro cast back to see the Deathshroud following them in lockstep, moving with such flawless precision that they appeared to be automata and not actually men.
'Don't worry, Nathaniel,' said Mortarion, 'I have no plans to replace my guardians just yet. I am not about to recruit you into the secret dead.'
'As you wish, lord,' Garro replied, getting the use of his throat back.
'I know you frown on such things as the cups, but you must understand that honours and citations are sometimes necessary.' He nodded to himself. 'Warriors must know that they are valued. Praise... praise from one's peers must be given when the moment is right. Without it, even the most steadfast man will eventually feel unvalued.' There was an edge of melancholy that flickered through the primarch's voice so quickly that Garro decided he had imagined it.
Mortarion brought them to the edge of the balcony and they looked down at the large assemblage of men. Although Endurance was not large enough to hold the entire Legion, many of the Death Guard's seven companies were represented below, in whole or in part. Garro caught sight of Ullis Temeter and his comrade threw him a salute. Garro nodded back.
'You are a respected man, Nathaniel,' said the primarch. 'There's not a captain in the whole of the Legion who would not acknowledge your combat prowess.' He smiled slightly again. 'Even Commander Grulgor, although he may hate to admit it.'
'Thank you, lord.'
'And the men. The men trust you. They look to you for strength of character, for leadership, and you give it.'
'I do only what the Emperor commands of me, sir.' Garro shifted uncomfortably. As honoured as he was to have a private moment with his master, it troubled him in equal measure. This was not the direct, clear arena of warfare where Garro understood what was expected of him. He was in rarefied air here, loitering with a son of the Emperor himself.
If Mortarion sensed this, he gave no sign. 'It is important to me to have unity of purpose within my Legion. Just as it is important for my brother, Horus, to have unity across the entirety of the Astartes.'
'The Warmaster,' breathed Garro. There had been rumours aboard the Endurance for some time that elements of the Death Guard's flotilla would be sent on a new task after the jorgall interception. At the forefront of this talk was the possibility that they would join the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade, commanded by none other than the chosen son of the Emperor himself, Horus the Warmaster. It was clearly more than rumour, he now realised. Garro had fought side by side with the warriors of Horus's XVI Legion in the past, and had only admiration for men like Maloghurst, Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon. 'I have served with the Luna Wolves in the past, lord.'
'They are the Sons of Horus now,' Mortarion corrected gently, 'just as the Death Guard were once the Dusk Raiders. My brother expects great things of our Legion, captain. A battle is coming that will test all of us, from the Warmaster to your lowly housecarl.'
'I will be ready.'
The primarch nodded. 'I have no doubt of that, but it is not enough to be ready, Nathaniel.' His fingers knitted together over the iron balustrade. 'The Death Guard must be of one mind. We must have singular purpose or we will falter.'
Garro's discomfort deepened and he wondered if the after-effects of the cup's contents were not still upon him. 'I... I am not sure I understand you, lord.'
'Our men find solace in the lines of command with their superiors and inferiors, but it is important that they also have a place in which the barriers created by rank can be ignored. They must have freedom to speak and think unfettered.'
All at once, the insight Garro had been lacking came to him in a cold rush. 'My lord refers to the lodges.'
'I have been told that you have always eschewed membership. Why, Nathaniel?'
Garro stared at the deck plates. 'Am I being ordered to join, lord?'
'I can no more command the workings of the lodge than I can the motion of the stars,' Mortarion said easily. 'No, captain, I do not order you. I only ask why. Illuminate me.'
It was a long moment before he spoke again. 'We are Astartes, sir, set on our path by the Master of Mankind, tasked to regather the lost fragments of humanity to the fold of the Imperium, to illuminate the lost, castigate the fallen and the invader. We can only do so if we have truth on our side. If we do it in the open, under the harsh light of the universe, then I have no doubt that we will eventually expunge the fallacies of gods and deities... but we cannot bring the secular truth to bear if any of it is hidden, even the smallest part. Only the Emperor can show the way forward.' He took a shuddering breath, intently aware of the primarch's unblinking stare upon him. 'These lodges, though they have their worth, are predicated on the act of concealment, and I will have no part of that.'
Mortarion accepted this with a careful nod. 'What of your battle-brothers who feel differently?'
'That is their choice, lord. I have no right to make it for them.'
The primarch drew himself up once more. 'Thank you for your candor, battle-captain. I expected nothing else.' He paused. 'I have one more request of you, Nathaniel, and this, I'm afraid, is indeed an order.'
'Sir?' Garro felt an odd flutter in his chest.
'Once we are done here, this fleet will make space for the Isstvan system to rendezvous with the Warmaster's command ship, the Vengeful Spirit. Horus will be holding a war council with representatives of the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children, and I will have need of an equerry to join me there. First Captain Typhon will be engage |
nothing else.' He paused. 'I have one more request of you, Nathaniel, and this, I'm afraid, is indeed an order.'
'Sir?' Garro felt an odd flutter in his chest.
'Once we are done here, this fleet will make space for the Isstvan system to rendezvous with the Warmaster's command ship, the Vengeful Spirit. Horus will be holding a war council with representatives of the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children, and I will have need of an equerry to join me there. First Captain Typhon will be engaged in other duties, so I have chosen you to accompany my party.'
Garro was speechless. To extend such a privilege to a battle-captain was unprecedented, and the thought of it made his chest tighten. To stand in Mortarion's presence was heady enough, but to be close at hand before an assembly of the Emperor's sons led by the Warmaster...
It would be glorious.
FOUR
Two Faces
A Scream in the Darkness
Gathering of Legends
THE PICT SCREEN was a flexible thing, like cloth, and it hung from the eaves of the armoury chamber alcove in the manner of a tapestry. Cables trailed away to shining brass sockets in the walls, streams of data feeding images from the ship-to-ship vox network. The view was a live signal, attenuated by interference from the Horologii star, and although it appeared to be instantaneous, it was actually a few minutes behind the real events, the transmission slowed by relativistic physics, not that such a fact seemed to concern the Astartes gathered to watch.
The display came from remote scrying picters on the bow plane of Barbarus's Sting, a light frigate that had been tasked to follow the jorgall world-ship on its last journey. The images were being recorded for posterity. The better views would doubtless be worked into stirring newsreels for distribution across Imperial space.
The world-ship's drives flashed red and tongues of fusion flame erupted from their nozzles, each one as long as the Sting. At the edges of the picture, it was possible to see the glints of smaller craft - shuttles and Thunderhawks - escaping the world-ship with the last of the Imperial forces on board. The picters rotated to follow the monolithic craft and smoked filters faded in as the Iotan sun hove into view.
The world-ship was accelerating away, gaining speed with every passing moment. The controls for the propulsion system captured by the Death Guard of the Second Company had been locked open by the adepts of the Mechanicum. Barbarus's Sting kept a respectful distance, drifting after the bottle-world, framing its descent towards the sun. Great loops of crackling electromagnetic energy shimmered around the pearlescent cylinder as it cut into the star's invisible chromosphere, destroying the solar panels at the aft. They crisped and burned, folding in on themselves like insect wings touched by candle flames. The world-ship fell faster and faster, dipping into the raging superheated plasma of the photospheric layer. Hull metal peeled away in curls a kilometre long, revealing ribs of metal that melted and ran. Finally, the alien vessel sank through a glowing coronal prominence and disappeared forever into the stellar furnace.
'Gone,' murmured Brother Mokyr, 'ashes and dust, as are all the enemies of the Death Guard. A fitting end for such xenos hubris.' A swell of self-congratulatory mood passed through the assembled men of the Second Company.
It was they who had made the sun dive possible, after spending their blood and fire to take the heavily defended engineering domes from the jorgall. It was fitting that they were witnesses to the alien vessel's final moments.
'I wonder how many survivors were aboard,' said a sergeant, watching the star's rippling surface.
Mokyr grunted. 'None.' He turned and grinned at his company captain. 'A fine victory, eh, commander?'
'A fine victory,' repeated Grulgor in a rancorous tone, 'but not fine enough.' He shot a hard look up at the gallery, where Garro stood in conversation with his primarch.
'Curb your choler, Ignatius. For once, try not to wear it like a badge upon your chest.' Typhon drew near, the rank-and-file Astartes parting before his approach.
'Forgive me, first captain,' Grulgor retorted, 'it is just that my choler, as you put it, is apt to suffer when I am forced to witness the unworthy rewarded.'
Typhon raised an eyebrow. 'You are questioning the primarch's decisions? Careful, commander, there is sedition in such thoughts.'
He drew close to the other man so that their conversation would be less public.
'Garro rescues women and kills newborns, and for that he is given a draught from the cup? Have the standards of the Legion fallen so low that we reward such behavior?'
The first captain ignored the question and answered with one of his own. 'Tell me, why do you object to Nathaniel Garro with such vehemence? He is a Death Guard, is he not? He is your battle-brother, a kinsman Astartes.'
'Straight-arrow Garro!' Anger bubbled up through Grulgor's mocking reply. 'He's not fit to be a Death Guard! He is high-handed and superior, always looking down his nose! He thinks himself so much better than the rest of the Legion, too proud and too good for the rest of us!'
'Us?' asked Typhon, pushing the commander to say what he knew was there just beneath the surface.
'The sons of Barbarus, Calas. You and I, men like Ujioj and Holgoarg! The Death Guard who were born upon our blighted home world! Garro is a Terran, an Earthborn. He wears it like some sacred brand, always reminding us that he is our better because he fought for the Legion before it was given to Mortarion!' Grulgor shook his head. 'He pours scorn on my company, upon our brotherhood and comradeship of our lodge, too haughty to mix with the rest of us outside of rank and rule, and do you know why? Because his precious birthright is all he has! If he wasn't favored by the Emperor with that damned eagle cuirass he wears, he wouldn't be allowed to ride the hem of my cloak!'
'Temeter is a Terran-born, and so is Huron-Fal, and Sorrak and countless others within our ranks,' said the captain levelly. 'Do you detest them as well, Ignatius?'
'None of them drag the old ways around like rattling chains. None of them think themselves a cut above the rest because of their birthplace!' His eyes narrowed. 'Garro acts as if he has the right to judge me. I will not tolerate such condescension from a man who grew up watered and well-fed, while my clan fought for every breath of clean air!'
'But is not Mortarion himself a Terran?' Typhon asked with a wicked smile, daring Grulgor to go further still.
'The primarch's place of birth was Barbarus,' insisted the commander, rising to the bait. 'He is, and always will be, one of us. This Legion belongs to the Death Lord first and the Emperor second. Garro should be reminded of that, not given praise he does not deserve.'
'Bold words,' noted Typhon, 'but I'm afraid you may be further disappointed. Our lord commander has not only granted Captain Garro the cups today, but will also take him as equerry to the war council at our next port of call.'
Grulgor's pale face flushed crimson. 'Did you come to mock, Typhon? Does it amuse you to parade Garro's favours in front of me?'
The line of Typhon's jaw hardened. 'Watch your tone, commander. Remember to whom you speak.' He looked away. 'You are a true Death Guard, Grulgor, a blunt instrument, lethal and relentless, and you are loyal to the primarch.'
'Never question that,' growled the Astartes, 'or I will take your head, first captain or not.'
The threat amused the other man. 'I would never dare to do such a thing, but I would ask you this - how far would your loyalty to Mortarion take you?'
'To the gates of hell and beyond, if he commanded it.' Grulgor's reply was immediate and absolute.
Typhon watched him carefully. 'Even if it was against the will of a higher authority?'
'Like the Sigillite?' snapped Grulgor, 'or those wastrels filling the Council of Terra?'
'Or higher still.'
The commander snorted with bitter laughter. 'The Death Lord first, the Emperor second. I said it and I meant it. If that makes me of lesser worth than men like Garro, then perhaps I am.'
'On the contrary,' nodded Typhon, 'it makes you all the more valuable. There are great powers soon to bloom, Ignatius, and men of your calibre will be needed when those moments come.'
He threw a dismissive glance up at the gallery. 'And what about him?'
Typhon shrugged, a peculiar gesture in the heavy plate of his armour. 'Nathaniel Garro is a good soldier and a leader of men, with the respect of many Astartes in this and other Legions. To have him at the primarch's side - as you say, a man so staunch a Terran - when a time of decision came to pass... that would carry much weight.'
Grulgor sneered. 'Garro has a steel rod up his backside. He would break before he would bend his knee to anything but the rule of Terra.'
'All the more reason for the primarch to keep a close eye on him.' Typhon's gruff voice became a rough whisper. 'I, however, see the reality in your viewpoint, Ignatius, and when the moment of choice comes and Garro does not fall in to line-'
'You might require the services of a blunt instrument, yes?'
A nod. 'Just so.'
The commander showed his teeth in a feral smile. 'Thank you, first captain,' he said, in a louder voice. 'Your counsel has been most soothing to my ill-humour.'
ENDURANCE TORE ITSELF from the mad fury of the warp and crashed into corporeal reality once more, leading the Death Guard flotilla into the wide-open diamond formation of the 63rd Expedition fleet. Garro, once again in his full battle armour and honour kit, stood behind and off to the side of his primarch as Mortarion observed the Warmaster's forces from the assembly hall. Flanked by the Deathshroud, Garro's commander stood with one hand pressed to the thick armourglass window that formed the right eye socket of the giant stone skull on the ship's bow.
'My brother seeks to impress us |
more, leading the Death Guard flotilla into the wide-open diamond formation of the 63rd Expedition fleet. Garro, once again in his full battle armour and honour kit, stood behind and off to the side of his primarch as Mortarion observed the Warmaster's forces from the assembly hall. Flanked by the Deathshroud, Garro's commander stood with one hand pressed to the thick armourglass window that formed the right eye socket of the giant stone skull on the ship's bow.
'My brother seeks to impress us,' Mortarion said to the air. 'The Sons of Horus have indeed assembled a mighty force in this place.'
Garro had to admit that he had rarely seen the like, not since the days when the Emperor himself led the Great Crusade. The darkness was thick with ships of every type and tonnage, and the space between them swarmed with auxiliary craft, shuttles and fighters on perimeter patrols. The arrowhead arrangement of the green and grey liveried Death Guard ships slipped carefully into a pattern cleared for just that purpose. To the far starboard, across the bow of Typhon's flagship, the Terminus Est, he spied the ornate purple and gold filigree of a cruiser from the III Legion, the Emperor's Children, and high above at a different anchor, blue and red trimmed craft from the XII Legion, the World Eaters.
But what caught his attention and held it firmly was the single great battleship that orbited ahead of them all, isolated in its own halo of open space and screened by a wall of sleek Raven-class interceptors. A heavy ingot of fashioned iron, the Warmaster's Vengeful Spirit radiated quiet power. Even from this distance, Garro could see hundreds of gun turrets and the slender rods of massive accelerator cannons that were twice the length of the Endurance. Where the Death Guard ship displayed a skull and star sigil, Horus's flagship had a massive golden ring bisected by a slim ellipse. The eye of the Warmaster himself, unblinking and open to see all that transpired. Soon, Garro was to set foot aboard that vessel, carrying the honour of his company with him.
Repeater lights set into a control panel beneath the windows clicked and changed, signaling that the Endurance had come to her station. Garro looked up at his primarch. 'My lord, a Stormbird has been prepared in the launch bay for your egress. We are ready to answer the Warmaster's summons at your discretion.'
Mortarion nodded and remained where he was, observing silently.
After a moment, Garro felt compelled to speak again. 'Lord, are we not ordered to attend the Warmaster the moment we arrive?'
The primarch grinned in a flash of rictus. 'Ah, captain, we move from the battlefield to the arena of politics. It would be impolite of us to arrive too soon. We are the XIV Legion, and so we must respect the numbering of our brethren. The Emperor's Children and the World Eaters must be allowed to arrive first, or else I would earn the ire of my brothers.'
'We are Death Guard,' Garro blurted. 'We are second to none!'
Mortarion's smile widened. 'Of course,' he agreed, 'but you must understand that it is sometimes tactful to let our comrades think that is not so.'
'I... I do not see the merit in it, lord,' Garro admitted.
The primarch turned away from the viewport. 'Then watch and learn, Nathaniel.'
IN THE CONFINES of the Stormbird's spartan crew compartment, Garro once again felt dwarfed by his commander. Mortarion sat across the gangway from him, hunched forward so that his head was only a hand's span from the battle-captain's. The Death Lord spoke in a fatherly tone. Garro listened intently, absorbing every word as the small ship crossed the void between the Endurance and the Vengeful Spirit.
'Our role at this war council is an important one,' Mortarion said. 'The data you hold in your hand is the lit taper for the inferno that is about to engulf the Isstvan system.' At this, Garro opened his palm and studied the thick spool of memory-wire there. 'We bear the responsibility of bringing the news of this perfidy to the Warmaster's ears, as it was our battle-brothers who came across the warning that Isstvan has turned from the Emperor.'
Garro examined the coil. It was so innocuous an object to contain so volatile a potential. The little device hardly seemed capable of representing the death warrant of entire worlds. Before they had departed the Endurance, the primarch had shown Nathaniel the pict record contained on the spool, and the images left him with a chill that he found difficult to shake off.
He saw it again, the recall fresh and close to the surface. Garro had watched the terrified face of a woman loom in the assembly hall's hololithic tank, a shape of haze and shade like some mythical spirit bent on haunting the living. She was a minor officer of the army, a major. At least, she was somebody wearing the uniform of one. Garro saw glimpses of a stone stockade's walls among the jumping shadows, the dance of orange light from a chemical candle. Perspiration made her sallow face gleam, and the slender tongue of flame reflected from her anxious green eyes. When she spoke, it was with the voice of a person broken by horrors that no mortal should ever have lived to witness.
'It's revolution,' she began, pushing the words from her lips like a desperate curse. She rambled on, speaking of 'rejection' and of 'superstition', of things a line soldier like her had never believed could be real. 'Praal has gone mad,' she growled, 'and the Warsingers are with him.'
Garro's brow furrowed at the names and his master halted the replay, providing an explanation. 'The noble Baron Vardus Praal is the Emperor's Designate Imperialis on the capital world of the system, Isstvan III.'
'He... She means to say the governor of an entire world broke with the rule of Terra to throw in with some pagan idolaters?' Nathaniel blinked, the idea unconscionable from a man of such significant rank within the Imperium. 'Why? What madness could compel such a thing?'
'That is what my brother, Horus, will have us learn,' intoned the primarch.
The Astartes studied the woman's face, blurred in mid-motion as she turned to look at something out of view of her picter's lens. 'The other word, "Warsinger", my lord, I am unfamiliar with it.' He wondered if it were some kind of colloquial name, perhaps some sort of honorific.
'They were a local myth, according to the records of the 27th Expedition that enforced compliance here over a decade ago, a cadre of fantastical shaman warriors. Nothing but anecdotal evidence of their existence was ever found.' Garro's master was circumspect, and he tapped the hololith controls with a slender finger, letting the recording ran on.
With abrupt violence, the woman drew a heavy stub pistol, and shot and killed something indistinct at the margins of the image pick-up. She hove back into view, filling the screen, her unchained panic leaching out through the hologram. 'Send someone, anyone,' she pleaded. 'Just make this stop-'
Then there was the scream.
The sheer wrongness of the noise, the utterly alien nature of it made Garro's gut knot, and his fingers tightened reflexively around a bolter trigger that was not there. The impact of the sound beat the woman down and shredded the picter's image control, shifting the replay into a stuttering series of blink fast flash frames. Nathaniel saw blood, stone, torn skin, and then silent darkness.
'No word from the Isstvan system followed this,' said Mortarion quietly, allowing Garro to measure and understand what he had just viewed. 'No vox transmissions, no picter relays, no astropathic broadcasts.'
The battle-captain gave a stiff nod. The scream had cut though him like a knife-edge, the echo of it a weapon turning to pierce his heart. Garro shook off the eerie sensation and turned back to his liege lord. Mortarion explained that by pure chance, the distress signal had been picked up by the crew of the Valley of Haloes, a supply hauler in service to the XIV Legion. Suffering a dangerous Geller Field fluctuation while in transit to the Death Guard's Sixth Company flotilla at Arcturan, the Valley had emerged from the immaterium to effect emergency repairs.
There, as the ship drifted in space at the edge of the Isstvanian ecliptic plane, the desperate message had found purchase. Data addressing the rate of energy decay, pattern attenuation and the like were scrutinized by tech-adepts, revealing that the transmission had been flung into the ether more than two years previously. Garro considered the frightened officer he had seen on the hololith and wondered about her fate. Her last, awful moments of life were frozen and preserved forever while her bones lay out there somewhere, forgotten and decaying.
'Did the crewmen of the Valley detect anything else of import, master?' he asked. 'Perhaps if the men aboard the transport were fully debriefed-'
Mortarion glanced away, then back. 'The Valley of Haloes was a casualty at the Arcturan engagement. It was lost with all hands. Fortunately, this recording of the Isstvan signal was conveyed to the Terminus Est before that regrettable event.' The primarch spoke with a leaden finality on the matter that Garro felt compelled to accept.
The Death Lord placed the spool in the battle-captain's hand. 'Carry this burden for me, Nathaniel. And remember, watch and learn.'
INSIDE, THE VENGEFUL Spirit was no less impressive than it had been from a distance, the vast open space of the landing bay so wide and long that Garro imagined it would be possible to dock a starship the size of a small cutter in here with room to spare. An honour guard slammed their fists to attention in the old martial manner, saluting with hand to breast instead of the usual crossed palms of the aquila.
The battle-captain kept pace behind the Deathshroud and Mortarion, while Garro in turn was followed by a contingent of warriors from Typhon's First Company, their lockstep footfalls pulsing like ready thunder as the XIV Legion |
ng that Garro imagined it would be possible to dock a starship the size of a small cutter in here with room to spare. An honour guard slammed their fists to attention in the old martial manner, saluting with hand to breast instead of the usual crossed palms of the aquila.
The battle-captain kept pace behind the Deathshroud and Mortarion, while Garro in turn was followed by a contingent of warriors from Typhon's First Company, their lockstep footfalls pulsing like ready thunder as the XIV Legion's contingent marched on to the Warmaster's flagship. Garro could not help but glance around, taking in as much as he could of Horus's vessel, committing everything he saw to memory. He noticed other Stormbirds on landing cradles in the process of refueling for return flights, one adorned with the snarling fanged mouth of the World Eaters and another trimmed in regal purple with the golden wings of the Emperor's Children.
'My brother, Fulgrim, has not graced us with his presence,' murmured Mortarion, casually dismissing the purple Stormbird with thinly veiled sarcasm. 'How like him.' Garro peered closer and saw that the ship did not fly the pennants associated with the carriage of a primarch. Indeed, he recalled that there had been no sign of the Firebird, Fulgrim's assault ship, among the war fleet.
He found himself wondering if this was some element of the politics that his master had spoken of before. Garro frowned. He had always fancied that the primarchs were an inviolate fraternity, comrades of such exalted status that they were beyond any petty emotions like rivalry or contention, but suddenly such thoughts seemed naive. Astartes warriors like Garro and Grulgor were raised above normal men, and yet they still disagreed in their manners, more often than Nathaniel would have liked. Would it be surprising then to learn that the primarchs, who stood above the Astartes as much as the Astartes stood above mortal men, were also prey to the same differences?
Perhaps it was a good thing, Garro decided. If the primarchs were elevated too far towards godhood, they might lose sight of the fact that this was the Imperium of Man, and it was for the good of the common people of the galaxy that they served the Emperor.
With a silent member of the Sons of Horus leading their party, the Death Guard contingent moved across the cavernous bay to where a pneu-train carriage awaited to speed Mortarion to the bow decks of the Vengeful Spirit and the Lupercal's Court. Garro let his gaze turn upward, to the maze of skeletal gantries and walkways overhead, some heavy with cranes and weapons pallets, others ringed with catwalks for servitors and crewmen. It seemed oddly static up there for a working starship in preparation for a major combat operation. The battle-captain had expected dozens of figures clustering in the metal galleries to observe the arrival of the primarchs. Even aboard so illustrious a ship as the Warmaster's personal barge, it would have been a rare occurrence for parties from not two, but three other Legions to be aboard at one time. He looked hard, expecting to see men from Horus's Legion watching the proceedings, but saw only a handful, a scattering of deckhands and nothing else. Garro shook his head. Had the circumstances been reversed and the war council been taking place on Endurance, he would warrant that every Astartes on the ship would have come to see. It seemed as if something were missing.
'What troubles you, Nathaniel?' The primarch had halted at the pneu-train and was studying him.
Garro took a breath and the nagging thoughts in his mind abruptly crystallised. 'I had been told, lord, that the 63rd Fleet carried a substantial contingent of remembrancers with it. Considering the import of this day's meeting, it seems strange to me that I see not a single one of them hereabouts to record it.' He cast around with open hands.
Mortarion raised a pale eyebrow. 'Are you concerned that your heroic profile will be rendered incorrectly in some poet's doggerel, captain? That your name might be misspelled, or some other indignity?'
'No, my lord, but I had expected that they might mark such an uncommon moment as this gathering. Is that not their function?'
The primarch frowned. The Emperor's edict to introduce the army of artists, sculptors, composers, poets, authors and other sundry creatives to the fleets of the Great Crusade had not met with positive response from his sons, and despite the insistence from Terra that the endeavours of the Astartes were to be documented for posterity there were only a few in the Legions that were willing to tolerate the presence of civilians. Garro himself was largely indifferent to the idea, but he understood in an abstract way the value that future generations of humanity might gain from true accounts of their mission. For his part, the master of the Death Guard had been careful to ensure that the ships of the XIV were always engaged elsewhere, somewhere beyond the reach of the remembrancer delegations that were part of the larger expeditionary fleets.
Mortarion's character, like that of his Legion, was inward-looking, private and guarded in the face of those he did not regard. The Death Lord considered the remembrancers to be little more than unwanted intruders.
'Garro,' he replied, 'those gangs of ink-fingered scribblers and salon intelligentsia are here, but they do not have the run of the fleet. The Warmaster informed me that there was... an incident in recent days. Some remembrancers lost their lives because they ventured into areas that were unsafe for them. As such, tighter controls have been placed on their movements, for their own safety, of course.'
'I see,' replied the captain. 'For the best, then.'
'Indeed.' Mortarion entered the carriage. 'After all, what we discuss today will be its own record. There will be no need for scribes or stonecutters to immortalise it. History will do that for us.'
Garro took one last look around the bay as he ascended the boarding ramp, and from the corner of his eye a swift movement drew his attention. He glimpsed the figure only for a moment, but his occu-lobe optic implant allowed Nathaniel's brain to process every facet of the moment with pin-sharp clarity. It was an elderly man in the robes of an iterator of some senior rank, quite out of place in among the steel stanchions and rail tracks of the landing bay. He was quick and furtive in motion, keeping to the shadowed places, intent on some destination that he seemed fearful of ever reaching. In one of the iterator's hands was a fold of paper, perhaps a certificate or a permission of some kind. The old man was puffing with effort, and almost as soon as Garro registered him, he was gone, ducking into a companionway that disappeared within the depths of the warship.
The Death Guard grimaced and boarded the tram, the curious moment adding more definition to the sense of ill-ease he had felt from the moment he had arrived on the Spirit.
WHAT SHOULD ONE think of a place that was named the Lupercal's Court? The title had great vanity to it. It seemed to come with a sneer on the lips of the Sons of Horus, as if the chamber were in some manner a pretender to the grand court of the Emperor on distant Terra. Garro marched in at his rightful place, his chest stiff inside his ornamental cuirass from expectant tension. He did not know what to anticipate before him. The battle-captain had seen the Warmaster in the flesh only once and that was in passing, as he led the Seventh Company in review by the stands during the great parade after Ullanor.
But there he was, seated on a black throne upon a raised dais, beneath gales of sullen, uncommon banners. There were other people in the room, he was sure of it, but they were dim reflections of light and colour off the blaze of presence that was Horus. Garro felt a curious twinge in his legs, as if almost by muscle memory he felt the urge to kneel.
The Warmaster. He was indeed every iota of that, a perfect sculpture of the Astartes ideal on the stone chair, handsome and potent, radiating chained power. Robes laced with cords of white gold and copper pooled around him, cascading over the basalt frame of the throne. He wore armour of a kind Garro had only seen before in artworks, intricately worked plates of emerald-tinted flexsteel with vambraces made of black carbon.
Pieces of Horus's battle gear resembled elements of the older Mark III Iron Armour and the current Mark IV Maximus type, while some parts were more advanced than anything used by the Death Guard. An exotic pistol that appeared to be fashioned from glass nestled at the Warmaster's hip in the folds of an animal-skin holster. If anything, Horus seemed barely restrained by the bonds of ceramite and metal he wore, as if one mighty flex of his shoulders might split and throw them off.
Even at rest, the Lord of all Legions was a supernova made flesh, ready to detonate into action in an instant. The gleam of the slit-pupil Eye of Horus glared from his chest, catching the brooding glow from drifting glow-globes. With a near-physical effort, Nathaniel tore his gaze away from the being before him and pressed down the churn of emotion he felt. Now was not the time to be awestruck and unfocused, addled like some neophyte noviciate. Watch and learn, Mortarion had ordered. Garro would do just that.
His eye line crossed that of another Astartes on the dais in the new green livery of Horus's renamed Legion, and he nodded in brief greeting to Garviel Loken. Garro had once shared a bunker with Loken and some of his men, during the prosecution of the ork invasion of Krypt. The Death Guard and the Luna Wolves had fought together for a week across the frozen plains, turning the blue ice dark with xenos blood.
Loken gave him a tight smile and the simple gesture served to ease Nathaniel's tension a little. Nearby he saw the other members of Horus's inner circle, the Mournival - the warriors Torgaddo |
ion, and he nodded in brief greeting to Garviel Loken. Garro had once shared a bunker with Loken and some of his men, during the prosecution of the ork invasion of Krypt. The Death Guard and the Luna Wolves had fought together for a week across the frozen plains, turning the blue ice dark with xenos blood.
Loken gave him a tight smile and the simple gesture served to ease Nathaniel's tension a little. Nearby he saw the other members of Horus's inner circle, the Mournival - the warriors Torgaddon, Aximand and Abaddon - and an odd thought struck him. The body language of the four captains was subtle, but not so understated that Garro could not read it. There were lines of stress drawn here, Loken and Torgaddon on one side, Aximand and Abaddon on the other. He could see it in the way that they did not meet each other's eyes, the lack of the easy camaraderie that Garro had come to think of as a key characteristic of the Warmaster's Legion. Was there some concealed enmity at large within the Sons of Horus? The Astartes filed the information away for later consideration.
His primarch had correctly surmised that the lord of the Emperor's Children was not at the gathering. In his stead was a ranking officer whom Garro knew of through first-hand experiences, from crossings in battle that underlined the man's less than complimentary reputation. Lord Commander Eidolon and his troops were clad in wargear so elegant it made the Death Guard in their grey and green trim seem utterly featureless in comparison. The Legion had a reputation as dandies, preening over their armour and decorating themselves when other warriors looked to battle, and yet the wicked hammer carried by Eidolon and the swords of his men spoke to obvious martial skill on their part. Still, Garro could not help but think that the Emperor's Children were overdressed for the occasion.
The other presence in the room was almost as imposing as Horus, and the battle-captain found himself measuring the primarch of the World Eaters against his own liege lord as the two leaders exchanged a neutral look. Where Mortarion was tall and wolf-lean, the primarch Angron was thickset and heavy. The Death Lord's pale aspect was at the far end of the spectrum from the Red Angel's clenched fist of a face, eyes deep-set among an orchard of scars. Angron's mere presence leaked the coiled potential for feral violence into the chamber.
As Mortarion embodied the dogged, silent promise of death, so his brother primarch was the personification of raw and murderous aggression. The Lord of the World Eaters stood broad and deadly in bronze armour and a heaped cloak of tarnished chainmail that trailed the smell of old blood in the air. A cadre of his chosen men were at his side, led by an Astartes that Garro knew by reputation alone, Kharn, master of the Eighth Company. Unlike Eidolon, who was known for braggadocio, Kharn's name was synonymous with brutality in battle. There were rumours of slaughters Kharn had caused that even the most ruthless of the Death Guard found difficult to stomach.
Garro halted as Horus spoke, the voice commanding his total attention. 'With our brother, Mortarion, we are complete.' The Warmaster stood and once again Garro fought off the urge to kneel. From a shadowed niche near where Nathaniel stood, a lipless servitor operated a control and the court's lamps dimmed as a hololith bloomed before them. He recognized Isstvan III from the pict slates he had seen at Mortarion's hands, orbital shots taken by long range imagers, some hazed by the bright shape of the planet's largest satellite, the White Moon. This, then, was the world where the vile seed of Vardus Praal's treachery had taken root.
Horus spoke with keen urgency, each word sounding across the chamber as he repeated the details that Mortarion had given to Garro on the Stormbird, describing how years earlier the Primarch Corax and his Raven Guard had left Isstvan in good order to be turned to the Imperial way.
'Are we to assume that the truth didn't take?' Eidolon interrupted, his tone arch and sardonic, and Garro shot him a disdainful look. It seemed the lord commander's poor manners had not improved since last he had seen him. Horus ignored the outspoken Astartes and instead gestured to Mortarion, who took up the thread of the briefing, moving on to the matter of the distress signal. Nathaniel knew his cue and proffered the memory spool to the waiting servitor, which dutifully loaded it into the hololith console.
The message unwound and played to the assembled warriors. Instead of watching the recording again, Garro slowly let his gaze cross over the faces of his brother Astartes, searching for some measure of their reaction to the dead woman's panic and terror. Kharn mirrored his master Angron in his impassive mien, the very faintest twitch of a sneer pulling at the corner of his lips. Eidolon's haughty expression remained in place, apparently dismissive of the disheveled and unkempt condition of the messenger. Horus was unreadable, his face as calm as that of a statue.
Garro looked away and found the men of the Mournival. Only Torgaddon and Loken seemed affected, and of them Garviel looked to feel it the most. When the horrific killing scream came, Garro had steeled himself against it but still felt a churn of revulsion. He was watching Loken at that moment and saw the Son of Horus flinch, just as he himself had aboard the Endurance. Garro openly shared his comrade's discomfort. The dark message the distress signal carried was not just a call for help, a cry for the Astartes to leap to the defence of innocents. It was something much deeper, much more sinister than that. The Isstvan recording spoke of duplicity of the most base and foul kind, where men of the Imperium had turned back to the black path of ignorance, and done it willingly.
The mere thought of such a thing made the Death Guard feel sick with revulsion. At Isstvan, it would not be xenos or criminals, or foolish men blind to the Imperial truth that they were to face in combat. This foe had once been their comrades in the Emperor's service. They would be fighting tainted men, turncoats and deserters: traitors. The disgust churning in him turned hot and became ready anger.
Garro's mind snapped back to the moment, as the Warmaster showed them the Choral City, the seat of government on the third planet of the system and the source of the signal. The attack was to be huge, with elements of all four Legions, platoons of common soldiery and Titan war machines converging on Vardus Praal's base of operations in the Precentor's Palace. Nathaniel absorbed every detail, committing each element to his memory. The mention of his primarch's name caught his attention once more.
'Your objective will be to engage the main force of the Choral City's army,' said Horus, directing his words to Mortarion.
The battle-captain could not help but feel a swell of pride when his master spoke up after the supreme commander had laid out his orders. 'I welcome this challenge, Warmaster. This is my Legion's natural battlefield.'
There would be one objective to complete before the assault on the Choral City began, and that was a raid to silence the monitors on Isstvan Extremis, the outermost world of the system and home to the nexus of its sensor web network. Once blinded, the defenders of Isstvan III would only know that retribution was on its way. They would not know where or when it would strike.
'Aye,' whispered Garro to himself, staring into the depths of the hololith and the sprawl of urban complexity it presented. The Choral City would make a demanding theatre of combat, but it was one that Nathaniel was already eager to explore.
The rest of the order of battle was swiftly laid down. The Emperor's Children and the World Eaters would target the Palace and the Warmaster's own Legion would attack an important religious shrine to the east, a vast cathedral complex called the Sirenhold. The name resonated in his mind and once again Garro turned the strange words over and over in his thoughts,
Sirenhold... Warsinger...
Unbidden, the alien phrases brought back the creeping sense of unease, and a cold foreboding that would not release him.
FIVE
Choices Made
Omens
In Extremis
OVER THE RUMBLE and clatter of docking gear, Nathaniel heard a voice call his name and turned in place to see an Astartes in shining purple armour throw a salute. Garro hesitated, glancing back to see if he hadn't broken some minor protocol by stepping out of the formation. Beneath the spread wings of the Stormbird launch cradles, he saw his primarch and the master of the World Eaters leaning close together, speaking in a careful and measured fashion. He concluded that he had a moment or two before his lord commander would require him.
The warrior of the Emperor's Children was approaching and Garro's eyes narrowed. During the briefing neither Commander Eidolon nor the men of his honour guard had even deigned to acknowledge the battle-captain's presence, yet here was one of them calling out for his attention. He didn't recognize the pennants on the man's armour, but he was sure that this Astartes hadn't been present in the Lupercal's Court.
'Ho, Death Guard,' said a wry voice from behind the blunt-snouted breath mask of the helmet. 'Are you so slow-witted that you ignore your betters?' The figure reached up and removed his headgear, and Garro felt a warm grin cross his lips for what felt like the first time in days.
'Blood's oath! Saul Tarvitz, aren't you dead yet? I hardly recognized you underneath all that finery.'
The other man gave a slight nod, shoulder-length hair falling across a patrician face marred only by a brass plate across his brow. 'First Captain Tarvitz, I'll have you note, Nathaniel. I've moved up in the world since last we spoke.' The two Astartes clasped each others wrists and their vambraces clattered together. Each had a small eagle carved there by knifepoi |
ike the first time in days.
'Blood's oath! Saul Tarvitz, aren't you dead yet? I hardly recognized you underneath all that finery.'
The other man gave a slight nod, shoulder-length hair falling across a patrician face marred only by a brass plate across his brow. 'First Captain Tarvitz, I'll have you note, Nathaniel. I've moved up in the world since last we spoke.' The two Astartes clasped each others wrists and their vambraces clattered together. Each had a small eagle carved there by knifepoint, a sign of the battle debt they owed one another.
'So I see.' Garro saw it now, the etching and the filigree on the shoulder plates that designated Tarvitz's new rank. 'You deserve it, brother.'
There were few men outside the Death Guard that Garro would ever have given the distinction of that address, but Tarvitz was one of them. He had earned Nathaniel's amity during the Preaixor Campaign and proven to him that for all the reputation of Fulgrim's Astartes as overconfident peacocks, there were men among the ranks of the Emperor's Children that embodied the ideals of the Imperium. 'I had wondered if we might cross paths here.'
Tarvitz nodded. 'We'll do more than that, my friend. Our companies are to form part of the spear tip to silence the monitor station.'
'Yes, of course.' Garro was aware that the First Company of the III Legion would be fighting alongside his Seventh Company, but now that he knew Saul Tarvitz would be there, he felt a greater confidence. 'Eidolon has given you this one, then?'
Tarvitz hid a grin. 'No, he'll be there at my shoulder. He's not one to miss even a sniff of glory. I imagine he will goad me on to ensure the Death Guard don't take the lion's share of the kills.'
Garro's smile turned brittle. 'It cheers me to see you, honour brother,' he said, his emotions suddenly raw, there and then gone.
Tarvitz caught the moment too. 'I know that look, Nathaniel. What's troubling you?'
He shook his head. 'Nothing. It's nothing. I am fatigued, that is all, and perhaps a bit overawed by all... all this.' He gestured around.
The other officer glanced at the primarchs, still intent on their conversation. 'Aye, I share that with you.' He smirked. 'Is it true what they say? That the Warmaster can stop your heart as soon as look at you?'
'He's impressive, of that you can have no doubt,' agreed Garro, 'but then would you expect any less of an Emperor's chosen?' He hesitated. 'I'm surprised you weren't part of the honour guard. Doesn't your rank entitle you to that?'
'Eidolon has favour over me,' Tarvitz replied, 'and he would never share his moment in Horus's spotlight with another officer.'
Garro grunted. 'If he preens about the moment too much, you might ask him to recount how Angron shouted him down for his impudence and the Warmaster gave his approval to it.'
Tarvitz laughed. 'I doubt that part of the story will ever be told!'
'No.' Garro looked back at Mortarion and saw the Death Lord give a shallow bow to the World Eater. 'I think we'll be leaving now. Until the battlefield then, Saul?'
'Until the battlefield, Nathaniel.'
'Tell Eidolon we'll try to leave a little glory for him. If he asks us politely.' The battle-captain saluted and followed his master aboard the Stormbird.
'DO YOU REALLY think you can take him?' asked Rahl, tapping a quizzical finger on his chin.
Decius did not look up. 'This is a battle, like any other, and I intend to win it.'
Rahl glanced at Sendek, who waited, poised and ready. 'He's going to beat you to a standstill.' The Astartes leaned in closer, over the arena of combat. 'Look here, your magister is under threat from his castellan. Your dragonar is pinned by his cannonades, and-'
'If you want a game, you can wait until after I have dispatched Sendek,' snapped Decius. 'Until then, if you must watch, be silent. I need to think.'
'That's why you'll lose,' Rahl retorted.
'Let them play, Pyr,' said Hakur, the veteran pulling Rahl away from the regicide board as ill-temper flared in the younger Astartes's eyes. 'Stop distracting him.'
Rahl allowed the older warrior to draw him back. 'Care to make a bet on the outcome?'
'I'd hate to embarrass you, again.'
He smiled. 'Solun's going to lose, Andus, that's as plain as your face.'
Hakur returned the smile. 'Really? Well, although I may not be as handsome as you, I have the benefit of wisdom, and I'll tell you this. Solun Decius isn't the fool you think he is.'
'I never said he was a fool.' Rahl was defensive. 'But Sendek is the thinker, and regicide is a game of the mind. I've seen the mess Solun makes of the practice cages. That's where the lad's strength lies, in his fists.'
Andus smirked. 'You shouldn't underestimate him. He wouldn't be part of the battle-captain's cadre if he was a dim candle.'
The veteran cast a look over at the table, where Decius had just moved a soldat to take one of Sendek's iterators. 'He's young, that's true, but he has a lot of potential. I've seen his kind before. Let him grow unguided, he'll turn down the wrong path and wind up a corpse. But mould a man like him with care and intention, and at the end you'll have a brother fit to be a captain himself one day.'
Rahl blinked. 'I thought you didn't like him.'
'Why, because I make sport of the lad? I do that to everyone. It's part of my charm.' Andus leaned closer and lowered his voice. 'Of course, if you tell him I said any of those things, I'll deny it to the hilt, and then I'll break your legs.'
There was a decisive clack of wood on wood, and Rahl glanced around to see Sendek pressing his empress to the board, surrendering the game to Decius with a grudging smile on his face. 'Well played, brother. You are a singular opponent.'
'You see?' prodded Hakur.
'Ah, he must have let him win,' Rahl said lamely, 'as a small mercy.'
'Mercy is for the irresolute,' broke in Voyen as he entered the exercise enclosure, intoning the battle axiom with insincere solemnity. 'Who asks for it?' He shrugged back the hood of his off-duty robes.
Andus nodded to the other Astartes. 'Brother Rahl does. He has once again been proven wrong and it no doubt chafes upon him.'
Rahl finally bared his teeth in mild annoyance. 'Don't make me hurt you, old man.'
Hakur rolled his eyes. 'And what of you, Meric? Where have you been?'
The question was a mild one, but Rahl saw a fractional flicker of tension in the Apothecary's eyes. 'At my business, Andus, little more than that.' Voyen quickly turned the conversation away from him. 'So, Pyr, I trust you are ready for the coming fight? I think the score is in my favour still, yes?'
He nodded. Rahl and Voyen had a casual competition between them as to which man would take a kill first on any given mission. 'Only combatants count, remember? That last one was only a servitor.'
'Gun-servitor,' corrected Voyen. 'It would have killed me if I had let it.' He looked around. 'I believe we will have ample chance to test the mettle of these defectors on Isstvan. There's to be a multi-stage offensive, first a landing to deny the monitor stations on the outermost world. Then on to the inner planets for an assault in full.'
Hakur's lip curled. 'You're very well informed. Captain Garro has not returned from the Warmaster's barge and yet already you know the details of the mission.'
Voyen hesitated. 'It's common enough knowledge.' His tone shifted, becoming more guarded.
'Is it?' Rahl sensed something amiss. 'Who told you, brother?'
'Does it matter?' the Apothecary said defensively. 'The information came to me. I thought you would wish to know, but if you would rather remain unapprised-'
'That is not what he said,' Andus noted. 'Come, Meric, where did you learn these things? Someone in the infirmary babbling under the influence of pain nullifiers, perhaps, or a talkative astropath?'
Rahl became aware that the rest of the men in the room had fallen silent and were watching the exchange. Even Garro's housecarl was there, observing. Voyen saw Kaleb too and shot him a frosty glare.
'I asked you a question, brother,' said Hakur, and this time it was in the tone of voice he used on the battlefield, one accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed.
Voyen's jaw hardened. 'I can't say.' He stepped around the veteran and took a few paces towards his arming alcove.
Hakur caught his arm and stopped him. 'What is it you have in your hand?'
'Nothing of your concern, sergeant.'
The elder Astartes was easily twice the Apothecary's age, yet for all those decades Hakur's martial skills were deft and undimmed. He easily took Voyen's wrist and applied pressure to a nerve cluster, trapping his hand. Meric's fingers uncurled of their own accord and there in his palm was a mottled brass coin.
'What is this?' Hakur demanded in a low voice.
'You know what it is!' Voyen snapped back. 'Don't play me for a fool.'
The dull disc bore the imprint of the Legion's sigil. 'A lodge medal,' breathed Rahl. 'You're in the lodges? Since when?'
'I can't say!' Voyen retorted, shaking off Hakur's grip and walking to the alcove where his sparse collection of personal effects were kept. 'Don't ask me anything else.'
'You know the battle-captain's feelings on this matter,' said Andus. 'He refutes any clandestine gatherings-'
'He refutes,' Meric interrupted. 'He does, not I. If Captain Garro wishes to stay beyond the fraternity of the lodges, then that is his choice, and yours too if you wish to follow him. But I do not. I am a member.' He blew out a breath. 'There. It is said.'
Decius was on his feet. 'We are all part of the Seventh,' he growled, 'and the company's command cadre at that! Garro sets the example we should follow, without question!'
'If he would take the time to listen, he would understand.' Meric shook his head and gestured with the medal. 'You would understand that this is not some kind of secret society, it's just a place where men can meet and talk freely.'
'That seems so,' noted Sendek. 'From what you have implied, in this |
h. 'There. It is said.'
Decius was on his feet. 'We are all part of the Seventh,' he growled, 'and the company's command cadre at that! Garro sets the example we should follow, without question!'
'If he would take the time to listen, he would understand.' Meric shook his head and gestured with the medal. 'You would understand that this is not some kind of secret society, it's just a place where men can meet and talk freely.'
'That seems so,' noted Sendek. 'From what you have implied, in this lodge it appears that even the most sensitive of military information is bandied about without restraint.'
Voyen shook his head angrily. 'It's not like that at all. Don't twist my meaning!'
'You must end your membership, Meric,' said Hakur. 'Swear it now and we'll speak no more of this conversation.'
'I won't.' He gripped the coin tightly. 'You all know me. We are battle-brothers! I've healed every one of you, saved the lives of some, even! I am Meric Voyen, your friend and comrade in arms. Do you really think that I would take part in something seditious?' He snorted. 'Trust me, if you saw the faces of the men who were there, you'd understand that it's you and Garro who are in the minority!'
'What Grulgor and Typhon do with their companies is their own lookout,' added Decius.
'And the rest!' Voyen replied. 'I am far from the only soldier of the Seventh in the association!'
'No,' insisted Hakur.
'I would never lie to you, and if holding this token makes you think any less of me, then...' After a long moment he bowed his head, deflated. 'Then perhaps you are not the kinsmen I thought you were.'
When Voyen looked up again someone else had joined the other men in the chamber.
Rahl heard a razor-edge of anger in Captain Garro's voice as he spoke a single command. 'Give me the room.'
WHEN THEY WERE alone and Kaleb sealed the door behind him, Garro turned a hard stare on his subordinate. His mailed fingers tensed into fists.
'I never heard you enter,' Voyen muttered. 'How much did you hear?'
'You do not refute,' he replied. 'I stood outside in the corridor a while before I entered.'
'Huh,' the Apothecary gave a dry laugh. 'I thought your housecarl was the spy.'
'What Kaleb speaks of to me is guided only by his conscience. I do not task him.'
'Then he and I are alike.'
Garro looked away. 'You say then that it is your principles that made you join the lodge, is that it?'
'Aye. I am the senior healer for the Seventh Company. It's my duty to know the true feelings of the men who are part of it. Sometimes there are things a man will tell his lodge-mate that he would not tell his Apothecary.' Voyen stared down at the deck. 'Am I to assume that you will have me posted to another company in light of this disclosure?'
Some part of Garro expected himself to explode with fury, but all he felt now was disappointment. 'I eschew the lodge and then I learn a most trusted friend within my inner circle is a part of it. Such a thing might make me seem weak or short-sighted to others.'
'No,' insisted the Astartes, 'Lord, please know, I did not choose this in order to undermine you! It was only... the right choice for Meric Voyen.'
Garro was silent for a few moments. 'We have been brothers in warfare for decades, over thousands of battlefields. You are a fine warrior, and a better healer. I would not have had you join my cadre otherwise. But this... you kept this from us all, and made our comradeship cheap. If you stay under my command, Meric, you will not find it easy to earn back the trust that you have lost today.' He met the other man's gaze. 'Go or stay. Make the choice that is right for Meric Voyen.'
'If I wish to remain, will my departure from the lodge be a condition of that, lord?'
The captain shook his head. 'I won't force you to disassociate yourself. You're still my battle-brother, even if your decisions are sometimes not in line with mine.' Garro stepped forward and offered Voyen his hand. 'But I will have a pledge from you. Promise me, here and now, that if the lodge ever compels you to turn from the face of the Emperor of Man, you will destroy that medal and reject them.'
The Apothecary took Garro's hand. 'I swear it, lord. On Terra itself, I swear it.'
THE MATTER DEALT with for the moment, Garro gathered his men back together and briefed them on the battle plans the Warmaster had outlined. By his example, not a single harsh word was said to Voyen, but the Apothecary kept silent and to the edge of things. No voice was raised in question as to why Voyen still stood with them, but Garro saw reservations in the eyes of Decius, Rahl and the others.
When it was done, Garro left his dress wargear to Kaleb's attention and took his own council. So many things had come and gone in so short a time. It seemed like only moments ago that he had been looking over attack simulations for the raid on the jorgall world-ship, now the Legiones Astartes massed for the first hammer-blow strike on Isstvan Extremis, and Garro saw conflict in the heart of his own company.
Had he made the wrong choice in letting Voyen remain? His mind moved back to the conversation with Mortarion before the war council, where questions of the lodges had risen as well. It troubled the captain that he could not determine an easy path through these thoughts. At times he wondered if he were at fault, holding firmly to a conservative course, keeping the tradition and heart of the Legion alive while time moved on and things changed.
Yes, things were changing. The shift of mood here on Endurance was slight, but visible to his trained senses, and aboard the Warmaster's ship, it was more obvious still. Bleak emotions gathered at the edges of his thoughts like distant storm clouds. He could not shake the sensation that something malign was waiting out there, gathering strength and biding its time.
And so Garro did what he had made into a quiet personal habit, in order to clear his mind and find focus for the coming battle. High up atop the Endurance's dorsal hull lay the oval dome of the ship's observatorium, a space put aside so that naval crew might be able to take emergency star fix sightings should the vessel's cogitators become inoperative. It also served a purely ornamental function, although there were few among the Death Guard who ever used it for so trivial a purpose.
Garro dimmed all the glow-globes in the chamber and seated himself at the control console. The operator chair shifted back and reclined on quiet hydraulics. Presently, the battle-captain was tilted so he could take in the unfettered sweep of the starscape.
Isstvan's blue-white sun was a bright glow off in the lower quadrant, attenuated by a localised polarisation in the augmented armourglass. He looked away from it and let the blackness surround him. Gradually, tension eased from the knots in his muscles. Garro felt adrift in the ocean of stars, cupped in the bubble of atmosphere. He saw past the silver flashes of ship hulls, out into the deep void, and not for the first time, he looked and wondered where home was.
Officially, the home world of the XIV Legion was Barbarus, a cloud-wreathed sphere near the edge of the Gothic Sector. It was from that troubled world that most of the Death Guard's number originated, men like Grulgor and Typhon, Decius and Sendek, even Kaleb. Garro had learned to have deference and respect for the planet and its testing nature, but it would never be home to him.
Garro had been born on Terra and drawn up into the Legiones Astartes before men had even known the name of Barbarus. In those years the XIV Legion had gone by a different title, and they had no primarch but the Emperor himself. Garro swelled with pride to remember that time. They had been the Dusk Raiders, so known because of their signature tactic of attacking a foe at nightfall. Then, they had worn armour without the green trim of the current Legion. The wargear of the Dusk Raiders was the dull white of old marble, but with their right arm and shoulders coloured in a deep, glistening crimson. The symbology of the armour showed their foes what they truly were - the Emperor's red right hand, the relentless and unstoppable. Many enemies had thrown down their weapons the moment the sun dipped beneath the horizon, rather than dare to fight them.
But that too had changed. When the Emperor's clone-sons, the great primarchs, had been sundered from his side and scattered across the galaxy, the Dusk Raiders joined their brother Legions and their master in the Great Crusade that began the Age of the Imperium. Garro had been there, centuries past.
It did not seem so long ago, and yet there were countless years of time measured by Terran clocks that he had lost in the confusion of the warp, in cryogenic stasis and through the strange physics of near-light speed travel. Garro had been there as the Emperor crossed the galaxy in search of his star-lost children - Sanguinius, Ferrus, Guilliman, Magnus and the rest. With each reuniting, the Lord of Mankind had gifted his sons with command of the forces that had been created in their image. When at last the Emperor came to Barbarus and discovered the gaunt warrior foundling leading its oppressed people, he had located the avatar of the XIV Legion.
On Barbarus, where Mortarion had come to rest after falling through the chaotic turmoil of a warp storm, the boy-primarch found a planet where the human colonists were ground beneath the heel of a clan of mutant warlords. He grew up to fight them and liberate the commoners, creating his own army of steadfast warriors to lead the way into the poisonous heights where the warlords hid. These men Mortarion named the Death Guard.
So it was written, that when at last the Emperor and Mortarion met and defeated the dark master of the warlords, Barbarus was free and the primarch accepted a place in his father's Crusade at the head of the XIV Legion. Mortarion's first words to his army were carved in a granite arch over |